The Philippine government aims to inoculate 100% of the country’s tourism sector workers by the end of 2021, the National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez, Jr. said on Friday (Sept. 24).
“When the pandemic struck, the nation’s tourism sector took a major hit. We believe that in order for the industry to get back on its feet and safely open our economy, we need to vaccinate as many members of our workforce as possible,” the vaccine czar said during the ceremonial vaccination for the tourism industry sector in Cebu.
Speaking at the same event, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said that the NTF has committed to allocate a specific volume of vaccine doses for tourism workers that will come from the supplies to be shipped to local government units nationwide.
According to Puyat, vaccine allocation of 20,000 COVID-19 doses per week for the tourism sector was already approved by the NTF.
Currently, there are more than five million individuals in the country who are part of the tourism workforce or employed in tourism-related establishments across the country.
As of Sept 25, 14,798, 550 doses have arrived in the country in the month of September alone, bringing the total vaccine deliveries to 66,699,340 doses. (NTF) / CF – rir
