Teens aged 12 to 15 years old will not be prioritized for the COVID-19 vaccination program in the meantime because of the limited supply of vaccines available in the country.

According to the Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the priority will still be for vulnerable sectors such as health workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities to get vaccinated as soon as possible. The government is also looking at inoculating frontliners in essential sectors and indigent Filipinos by June. Adolescents are not part of the high-risk group.

Meanwhile, the Philippines is expected to procure more doses of Pfizer vaccine for teens, amending the emergency use authorization granted to the Pfizer vaccine that states that it is only for people ages 16 and above as stated by the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said on Monday that the Pfizer doses will be given to the age group as the current supply from the COVAX facility is for the poor.

“Dahil ‘yan lang naman po ang bakuna na pupwede sa teenagers, asahan po natin na bibili tayo ng mas maraming Pfizer (doses) para sa mga teenagers,” Roque stated.

This government’s plan of action regarding the vaccination rollout to teens will be detrimental towards reopening schools as there is no final decision yet as to when schools open for the next academic year.

Since launching its mass COVID-19 vaccine campaign at the start of March, the Philippines has over one million people who have been fully vaccinated against the virus. This is nearly 1% of the Philippines’ population.

This is still far from the government’s goal to vaccinate 70 million Filipinos by the end of 2021. Moreover, the country ranks second to the last among Southeast Asia in terms of the percentage of the population that has received at least one dose of the vaccine.