The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is urging local government units (LGUs) in the provinces to include the agency's frontliners in their vaccination programs against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
BI Spokesperson Dana M. Sandoval explained that immigration officers assigned in the provinces are also "frontliners doing essential jobs".
"It would be unreasonable and illogical if provincial immigration officers were required to travel to the BI main office in Manila to get vaccine shot," an insider stated when asked why the agency was asking LGUs from the countryside to accommodate their personnel for inoculation.
Some 600 immigration frontliners in Metro Manila received their first dose of Sinovac Biotech-manufactured vaccines this past weekend. The inoculations were held at the BI main office in Manila.
The Sinovac vaccine is administered twice, with an interval of 28 days.
Six hundred and fifty others are scheduled to be inoculated this coming weekend on March 1 and 2.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said vaccinations are being scheduled during weekends in order to not disrupt the agency's operations.
He said senior officials and employees with comorbidities are being prioritized in the inoculation as prescribed by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Infectious Diseases.