PERSONS classified under the A4 cluster of the government’s list of priority sectors for vaccination will have to wait longer for their shots, says Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles.
Interviewed on television, Nograles said that the vaccination of frontline workers against the deadly virus from Wuhan, China may not happen this month, citing inadequate supply of the COVID-19 jabs.
He, however, said that inoculation might be able to start rolling by the first week of June for those falling under the revised A4 cluster that was approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force Against COVID-19 last week.
Interestingly, the government has not even been able to wrap up the vaccination of A1 to A3 groups or health workers, senior citizens and persons with comorbidities.
“Around end of May to maybe June kasi that’s the time na marami rin tayong makukuhang bakuna. Probably mid-May to June pwede na po ang A4.”
The A4 group includes:
- 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 (OFWs), including those scheduled for deployment within 2 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 government, which began its COVID-19 immunization drive on March 1, has only managed to administer 1.25 million doses of vaccines as of April 13.