The government approved on April 27 the allocation of 5,000 doses of covid-19 vaccines for the symbolic inoculation ceremony of minimum wage workers and overseas Filipino on Labor Day (May 1).
The 5,000 doses were requested by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to be used in the inoculation kickoff of economic frontline workers or essential workers belonging to the Priority List A4 of the national covid-19 vaccination program.
The DOLE has been ordered to create a masterlist of vaccine beneficiaries to ensure the equitable representation of the labor sector at the ceremony.
In line with this, the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (AITF-EID) is considering the inclusion of Congress frontline workers under Priority List A4, given their critical and dispensable role in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The following are the workers included in the A4 list as of April 16, 2021:
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 establishments;
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 government transport systems, 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 personnel in charge of monitoring government infrastructure projects. – AG/jlo
