The Philippines will start vaccinating frontline workers in key industries, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said, as the nation expects the delivery of more jabs against coronavirus in the coming weeks.
The coronavirus task force approved the vaccine deployment plan for priority group A4, which includes frontline workers in supermarkets, food and medicine manufacturers, banks, utilities and tourism, Roque said in a news statement issued on Friday. Also under this group are religious leaders, overseas Filipino workers, teachers, government workers, tax collectors, diplomats and media personnel, he said.
Previously, only health workers, people aged at least 60 years old, and those with comorbidities were inoculated. Vaccinating key industry workers is part of the government’s plan to safely reopen more sectors of the economy amid a new surge in cases.
The Philippines, which has the most number of active Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia, targets to vaccinate up to 70 million Filipinos and seeks to buy as many as 170 million doses. It’s expecting the delivery of 1 million more Sinovac vaccines in April and another 2 million in May.
The Department of Education (DepEd), meanwhile, thanked President Duterte and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for the inclusion of basic education frontliners in the A4 priority category of the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan.
Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones earlier made an appeal to include the all teaching and non-teaching in both public and private schools in the vaccine rollout of the government.
“With the adjustment of vaccine prioritization [from B1 to A4] for basic education frontliners, we can speed up the rollout of vaccines among our teachers and non-teaching staff,” the DepEd chief added.
DepEd also reiterated its commitment to continuously protect the health and safety of teachers, learners and non-teaching personnel, and prioritize their welfare “at this critical time.”
As spelled out by the President, the DepEd reiterated that vaccination is a “key component” of any roadmap to the resumption of face-to-face classes. Bloomberg News and Claudeth Mocon-Ciriaco
Read full article on BusinessMirror
