Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 6) – The vaccination of persons in the A4 vaccine priority group, or the economic frontliners, will start on June 7, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Sunday.
A symbolic vaccination ceremony will be held at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City to mark the start of the inoculation of the country’s essential workers.
Duque said first to be vaccinated would be workers living in densely-populated areas and places experiencing a spike in COVID-19 infections.
“Dito sa NCR Plus 8, ito ang nagko-constitute ng pinakamalaking negosyo, sa ekonomiya natin. Pero ‘yung ibang mga regions na may mga surge — Regions 6, 9 and 10, 11, 12, 13, BARMM — naka-ready na sila Sec. Charlie (Galvez) to deploy sa mga high-spike areas,” Duque said.
[Translation: The NCR Plus 8 constitute the biggest share in business, in our economy. But (vaccine czar) Sec. Charlie (Galvez) is ready to deploy in high-spike areas and regions which have a surge, like Regions 6, 9 and 10, 11, 12, 13, and BARMM.]
The country’s pandemic response task force divided the A4 priority group into three sub-groups: private employees required to physically report to work; government employees; and workers in the informal sector and the self-employed, who may be required to work outside of their homes and those working in private households.
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Galvez said they are targeting around four to five million vaccinations for this month. He earlier said government is looking to administer 500,000 shots a day by the third quarter of this year, and increase it to 740,000 shots daily to achieve herd immunity by the end of 2021.
The vaccine czar also reported on Sunday that over 10 million COVID-19 vaccine doses are expected to be delivered to the country this month.
