The vaccination of essential workers under the A4 priority group will most likely start next month, particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR), according to National Task Force Against COVID-19 deputy chief implementer and testing czar Secretary Vince Dizon.
“Secretary Galvez in the past days has announced that A4 will most likely start as early as June, especially in the NCR plus area,” Dizon said during the launch of “Ingat Angat, Bakuna Lahat” campaign on Friday, May 14.
“This is critical, especially since the vaccines are coming in, were going to really need to start inoculating our essential workers and I think this is very welcome news for the private sector because we have to give the protection for our workers in order to open up the economy,” he added.
The A4 priority group include frontline workers in the essential sectors such as market vendors, supermarket and food retail workers, and other workers who are required to interact with the public.
Bill Luz, chief resilience officer of the Philippine Disaster Resilience Foundation, urged all employees in the private sector to get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
He explained that the logic behind herd immunity is to get as many people vaccinated as possible.
He added that the vaccination is for the protection not only of the person but their immediate family, their friends, and their workplace.
“It’s something that we really encourage and advocate for because we think this is good for everybody and it becomes necessary for everybody in order to open up the economy,” Luz said.
“If there are too many exceptions, I’m afraid the objectives will not be met. So we would encourage everybody to be vaccinated,” he added.
The Department of Health (DOH) earlier said that the vaccination for A4 priority group may start in June.
But the Health department noted that this will still depend on the available of the vaccine.