DOH: No COVID-19 vaccination for A4 sector yet as gov't prepares guidelines

The Philippines has not yet started inoculating those belonging to the fourth priority group for COVID-19 vaccination as the government is still crafting guidelines, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the guidelines will be issued “soon” after the DOH met with representatives from the private sector and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr.

“So ngayon po, inaayos lang natin base sa mga pag-uusap with NITAG and the other stakeholders (As of now, we are drafting the guidelines based on talks with NITAG and the other stakeholders),” she said in an online briefing, referring to a team of immunization experts.

“Hindi pa po nag-uumpisa ang A4 natin na pagbabakuna. Nando’n pa rin tayo sa simultaneous vaccinations ng A1 to A3 (We have not started vaccinating the A4 sector. We are still in the simultaneous vaccinations of A1 to A3),” she added.

The Philippines has vaccinated over 1.3 million individuals who are part of the top three priority groups -- health workers, senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities -- as of April 20. 

The government’s inter-agency COVID-19 task force earlier announced that the following essential workers are part of the A4 sector: 

• [workers in] 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 system, 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

The Philippines has logged 971,049 COVID-19 cases with 846,691 recoveries and 16,370 deaths as of Thursday afternoon. --KBK, GMA News