DOT to conduct survey on tourism workers’ willingness to get COVID-19 vaccine— Puyat

The Department of Tourism will conduct a formal survey on tourism workers’ willingness to get COVID-19 jabs, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said Friday.

“We will be having a formal survey to find out who wants to be vaccinated. We have now informal surveys from different [tourism organizations],” Puyat said During the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) forum.

In these informal surveys, Puyat said they found that there are 172,922 tourism frontline service workers who are willing to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

The said surveys were conducted by the Philippine Hotel Owners Association, the Tourism Congress of the Philippines, among others.

“These are all informal surveys, but at least we are willing to be vaccinated,” Puyat said.

Puyat also mentioned that a lot of workers in the hotels being used as quarantine facilities are delighted with the government’s announcement that they will be part of the A1 vaccine priority group.

On May 27, the DOT chief announced that the government has approved the inclusion of workers in quarantine and isolation facilities in the A1 priority group.

So far, the government is vaccinating individuals who are medical frontliners- including their family members, the senior citizens, and persons with comorbidities.

Some local government units have already started inoculating the essential workers under the A4 category.

On Wednesday, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the actual vaccination of A4 priority group will commence once the main bulk of COVID-19 vaccine supplies from the COVAX Facility arrives in the country.

As of May 25, the  Philippines has fully vaccinated over 1 million individuals in the country. — RSJ, GMA News