More than 70 percent of tourism frontliners in Metro Manila who work at establishments accredited by the Department of Tourism (DOT) have already been vaccinated against coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the agency reported.

Based on the data shared by the DOT on Tuesday, Aug.10, 72 percent or a total of 19,315 out of 26,745 tourism workers from the 16 cities and lone municipality in the National Capital Region (NCR) have already received their COVID-19 jabs.

These include the 15,020 workers under the A1 priority group, or those assigned at quarantine or isolation accommodation establishments; and 4,295 frontliners in the A4 group, or the regular or staycation hotel workers.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the persons included in the vaccination program were collated from the lists submitted by at east 455 DOT-accredited accommodation establishments in NCR.

"The vaccination of our tourism workers is a necessary step to keep them protected while doing their duty in the frontlines. These figures are of high importance especially with the threat of the Delta variant," Puyat said.

"We are confident that we will be able to vaccinate 100 percent of tourism workers from DOT-accredited accommodation establishments from Metro Manila before the end of the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) period," she added.

In May this year, the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 decided to include frontline tourism workers in isolation facilities or quarantine hotels in the A1 priority group of the government's vaccination program after several endorsements and meetings with the DOT.

Aside from frontliners in the accreditation establishments, the DOT, through its NCR office, has also facilitated the inoculation of workers from accredited restaurants.

Some 1,245 out of the 4,479 names of workers gathered from lists submitted by 202 restaurants in Metro Manila have been vaccinated as of Aug. 9.

Meanwhile, the DOT is pushing accredited accommodation establishments that have yet to submit their list of tourism workers for vaccination to coordinate with its NCR office at [email protected] or via telephone number (+632) 8459-5200 loc.108.