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Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez said many hospitals want to join the vaccination of children aged 12-17 against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

"Initially six hospitals were included in the list but now all of the hospitals, even those in Iloilo, in Cebu wanted to join the list, they also want to have a pilot project in their hospital," Galvez said during the Talk to The People on Wednesday night.

However, Galvez admitted that vaccination in children remains to be a "sensitive issue" in the country because of the Dengvaxia incident during the previous administration.

Because of this, Galvez said the government will use "phased approach" to improve the confidence of parents and guardians in the COVID-19 vaccine.

"What is the phased approach, under this the Phase 1, is the initial rollout, we will do the pilot testing on Friday (Oct. 15). To reduce the percentage of hesitancy and increase the percentage of acceptance," he said.

"The initial rollout will be provided for 15 to 17 years old, and then after that, it will be followed by the 12 to 14 years old. This is why we called it incremental," he added.

Galvez said the second phase will start on October 22 followed by the third phase on October 29 before the vaccination among children will be conducted in other regions.

"October 22, is the second phase, where all the LGUs in NCR will have what we called a mini roll out at the same time. So we chose six cities but the NCR said that they are already prepared to have that pilot project in every city," he said.

"And then the third phase will be on October 29, where we can vaccinate the entire NCR and other nearby areas with 50 percent and at least the A2 populations are already vaccinated," said Galvez.

"Later the regions with high vaccination in terms of the vaccinations of A2 can also have what we called the mini roll out the CAR, Region I, Region II, Region III, Region IV-A, Region VIII, and Region X, and CARAGA," he added. Robina Asido/DMS