The rollout of pediatric vaccination will start next week after it was delayed due to the late arrival of the vaccine delivery.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the delivery of 780,000 vaccines for five to 11 years old is set to arrive Friday night.

Vergeire said the initial launching of the pediatric vaccination which was supposed to start Friday was moved to Monday, February 7.

"The vaccines for our younger populations are expected to arrive tonight, February 4, That is why here is our new schedule, for February 4, it was moved to the coming Monday, February 7," she said.

"For the February 5 schedule it was moved to Tuesday, February 8, while the February 7 and 8 schedules were moved to Wednesday on February 9." she added.

Despite the delay, Vergiere encouraged parents and guardians to continue to register their children for the vaccination as she emphasized its safety and effectiveness.

"Based on the global data from the 8.7 million vaccinated children in the world, 97.6 percent of them did not experience any adverse events following immunization or AEFI," she said.

"The adverse events that the children may experience are mild which includes some pain at the injection sites, headache, rush that can be treated at home which will eventually disappear after two to three days. There is no data that shows that the vaccine can cause death," she added. Robina Asido/DMS