The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has approved the Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) request for 5,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine for the symbolic inoculation ceremony of minimum wage workers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the A4 Priority Group on May 1, Labor Day.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the DOLE was instructed to create a master list to ensure fair representation of the labor sector at the said ceremony.
Meanwhile, Priority Group A4 also includes frontliners of Congress in recognition of their critical role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The complete list of Priority Group A4 is as follows:
- commuter transport (land, air, and sea), including logistics
- public and private wet and dry market vendors
- frontline workers in groceries, supermarkets, delivery services
- workers in manufacturing for food, beverage, medical and pharmaceutical products
- frontline workers in food retail, including food service delivery
- frontline workers in private and government financial services
- frontline workers in hotels and accommodation establishments
- priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders
- security guards/ personnel assigned in offices, agencies, and organizations identified in the list of priority industries/sectors
- frontline workers in private and government news media
5K workers from A4 Priority Group to receive COVID-19 vaccine on labor day
- customer-facing personnel of telecoms, cable and internet service providers, electricity distribution and water distribution utilities
- frontline personnel in basic education and higher education institutions and agencies
- overseas Filipino workers, including those scheduled for deployment within two months
- frontline workers in law/justice, security, and social protection sectors
- frontline government workers engaged in the operations of government transport system, quarantine inspection; worker safety inspection and other COVID-19 response activities
- frontline government workers in charge of tax collection, assessment of businesses for incentives, election, national ID, data collection personnel
- diplomatic community and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) personnel in consular operations
- Department of Public Works and Highways personnel in charge of monitoring government infrastructure projects
Meanwhile, the sixth batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech arrived in the country on Thursday morning.
The 500,000 Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines were purchased by the Philippine government. The fifth batch, composed also of 500,000 doses, arrived on April 22.
The vaccines were delivered via a chartered Cebu Pacific flight from China.
Visit our Facebook page for more news updates.