THE government has expanded its list under the A4 priority sector for national vaccination, which now includes the diplomatic community, the members of the media, public utility workers and internet service workers.
While the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) may have approved the recommendation to add more sectors to the list, persons deprived of liberty – or those inside the extremely congested jail facilities, remain out of the government radar.
From 13, the list has added six more priority sectors. The complete list under the government’s A4 cluster is now composed of the following:
1. Commuter transport (land, air, and sea), including logistics
2. Public and private wet and dry market vendors
3. Frontline workers in groceries, supermarkets, delivery services
4. Workers in manufacturing for food, beverage, medical and pharmaceutical products
5. Frontline workers in food retail, including food service delivery
6. Frontline workers in private and government financial services
7. Frontline workers in hotels and accommodation establishments
8. Priests, rabbis, imams, and other religious leaders
9. Security guards/ personnel assigned in offices, agencies, and organizations identified in the list of priority industries/sectors
10. Frontline workers in private and government news media
11. Customer-facing personnel of telecoms, cable and internet service providers, electricity distribution, and water distribution utilities
12. Frontline personnel in basic education and higher education institutions and agencies
13. Overseas Filipino workers, including those scheduled for deployment within two months
14. Frontline workers in law/justice, security, and social protection sectors
15. Frontline government workers engaged in the operations of government transport system, quarantine inspection
16. Worker safety inspection and other COVID-19 response activities
17. Frontline government workers in charge of tax collection, assessment of businesses for incentives, election, national ID, data collection personnel
18. Diplomatic community and Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) personnel in consular operations
19. Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) personnel in charge of monitoring government infrastructure projects
Interestingly, people in the list may not be able to get COVID-19 doses, not until July, amid what the government claimed as scarcity of supplies.