The government's pandemic task force has updated the Priority Group A4 of the National COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Plan to include more workers from different industries including the media, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and transportation.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the statement as the country works double-time to procuring more coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines as part of the measures to address the alarming spike in COVID-19 cases in the country.
In a statement, Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases approved updating the Priority Group A4.
The following are now part of the vaccination Priority Group A4
- 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 establishment
- 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
- 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 the 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 (DPWH) personnel in charge of monitoring government infrastructure projects
Originally, the Priority Group A4 is composed of frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel and other sectors identified as essential during the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
Last month, local chief executives were added to the said priority group from the B2. The move moved 1,634 provincial governors and city and municipal mayors and 42,046 barangay captains all over the country up the ladder.
The government rolled out its vaccination program on March 1 following the arrival of 600,000 doses of Sinovac's CoronaVac donated by the Chinese government.
The top priority in the vaccination program is healthcare workers in the A1 group. Next are senior citizens in the A2 group, followed by persons with comorbidities in the A3 group.
Last month, the government recently approved the simultaneous implementation of the vaccination program on the A1 group and A2 and A3 for the quick substitution list. The IATF said it was considering inoculating the Priority Group A4.