5-11 year old pediatric vaccination starts today

DAVAO CITY, Feb. 14 (PIA) An approximate number of 250 children were expected to be vaccinated at the Southern Philippines Medical Center yesterday as the pediatric vaccination for kids ages five to eleven commenced Monday (FEB. 14).

This happened as Dr. Ricardo Audan, chief of clinics at the Southern Philippines Medical Center firmly observed a reduction of COVID-19 cases in their facility.   

He said the RT-PCR results nowadays have resulted to 11 percent reduction of cases compared to the readings in the recent past which could reach 70 percent.  

Audan said there is truth to the observation that the delta variant was more serious than the omicron variant of COVID-19 but he stressed that the omicron variant is highly transmissible compared to the delta variant. 

“One thousand SPMC employees were positive of COVID-19 two weeks ago, but all of them returned to work after quarantine because they are all fully vaccinated.  It’s really the work of the omicron variant which is mild,” Audan said.  

He said the current admitted employees at the hospital facility stand at 15.  

Audan confirmed the weekly implementation of the memorandum order requiring RT-PCR swab test for all its medical front liners.  

He said the memorandum order for them to undergo a weekly RT-PCR swab test is the only way for everyone to be vaccinated.  

Audan revealed that the unvaccinated medical front liners started at 240 but because of the hospital memorandum order, they finally saw the importance of the vaccination.  

He said that now the number of vaccinated medical front liners stands at nine.  

Audan expressed concern that the campaign period for the national and local elections can be super-spreader events due to the crowd brings.   

He observed not everyone in the crowd of rallies is fully vaccinated.  

Audan warned that infection is not far if one in the crowd is symptomatic with COVID-19 virus.  “You are not protected if even if you are fully vaccinated.  

But one is protected from being critical and severe of Covid-19,” he said.  

Audan remained confident that the IATF might lower the alert level of Davao Region to alert level II because of the reducing cases here.  

He urged everyone to continue to be alert since the pandemic remains in the environment and might aggravate because of the campaign period.  (PIA XI-Joey Sem G. Dalumpines)