National Task Force (NTF) Deputy Chief Implementer and Testing Czar Vince Dizon said on Monday, June 7, all employees who need to go out for work are part of the A4 priority group.
Dizon revealed this as he hailed the expansion of priority vaccination of essential economic workers, or those belonging to the A4 category.
"Matagal nang hinihintay ng mga manggagawa natin to. Ang mga manggagawa natin sila ang pinaka-exposed, sila ang pinakadelikadong magka-COVID-19 dahil nga labas sila nang labas araw-araw, kailangan nilang magtrabaho para sa kanilang mga pamilya pero pagkatapos nila magtrabaho araw-araw, babalik din sila sa pamilya nila so kailangang protektahan nila ang sarili nila (Our workers have been waiting for this for a long time. They are the most exposed to COVID-19 because they go out every day to work for their families. At the end of each they, they also go home to their families, so they need to protect themselves)," Dizon said during the symbolic vaccination of economic frontliners in Pasay.
"Kung kailangan mong magtrabaho sa labas ng bahay, kailangan mong mabakunahan (If you need to work outside your home, you need to be vaccinated)," he stressed.
The national government has expanded its COVID-19 vaccination to essential workers on Monday.
The government has started inoculating healthcare workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and persons with comorbidities (A4), three months since the country's vaccination program started.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has simplified the A4 category to include all government and private sector workers, informal sector workers, and those who work in private households who need to physically report to work.
About 35.5 million individuals are targeted to be vaccinated under the A4 category which will be done in two phases.
The first phase will include essential workers from Metro Manila, Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao or the NCR+8.
Meanwhile, the second phase will include workers outside NCR+8.
Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said that 2.2 million doses of Pfizer will arrive from June 10 to 11 while another batch of one million Sinovac jabs will be delivered on June 10.
In mid-June, 250,000 doses of Moderna, two million doses of AstraZeneca, and two million doses of Sputnik V are also expected to be shipped in the country.