DOT: Frontline tourism workers now on A1 priority group for COVID-19 vaccination
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Tourism on Friday said that frontline tourism workers in accommodation establishments utilized as isolation facilities or quarantine hotels are now included on the A1 priority group of the national vaccination program.
Last May 15, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. wrote to Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat and said that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) approved her department’s request to place the quarantine and isolation hotel workers under the A1 priority group initially intended for medical frontliners.
The medical frontliners (A1) were the first to be vaccinated in the government’s vaccination program, followed by seniors (A2) and persons with comorbidities (A3). Vaccination for the A4 priority group, a larger group which includes other tourism frontliners, is expected to start next month.
"We are very pleased to inform you that the request for inclusion of frontline employees in accommodation establishments used as isolation or quarantine hotels in the Priority Population Group A1, has been favorably acted upon," Galvez said.
Puyat thanked the National Task Force against COVID-19 for approving its earlier appeal for the inclusion of tourism workers on the vaccination priority list
"We express our deepest gratitude to Secretary Galvez and the NTF. Most of our tourism workers were reporting for work even at the onset of the pandemic while most of the cities and municipalities were still under an Enhanced Community Quarantine,” Puyat said in a statement.
“It is high time that we protect our tourism frontliners knowing that they are risking their lives each time they show up in the designated quarantine and isolation hotels. This move shows the government's commitment to protect them. Not only will this decision help ensure the survival of the tourism industry; this will also hasten the country’s economic recovery," she added.
Aside from the tourism workers under the A1, tourism workers under the A4 priority group include those working in quarantine hotels and airports.
It also includes workers from the transport sector and the food, restaurant and accommodation enterprises.
The DOT said there are 2,507 quarantine hotels employees who have been vaccinated against the COVID-19.
Puyat earlier asked the IATF-EID to include tourism workers in the vaccine priority list citing that these workers operate facilities and serve guests directly.
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