A4 priority group expands to BPO, Comelec frontliners for vaccination

Call center agents of a business process outsourcing firm (AFP FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines — Frontline employees of the business processing outsourcing (BPO) industry and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) are now included in the A4 priority group of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program, Malacañang said Friday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) allowed this upon the recommendation of the technical working group (TWG) of the interim National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (iNITAG).

“Sa pagbabakuna pa rin, ang frontline employees ng BPO industry and frontline employees ng Comelec ay inirekomenda sa iNITAG na mapasama sa priority group A4,” he said in a Laging Handa public briefing.

(On vaccination, the frontline employees of the BPO industry and frontline employees of Comelec are recommended by the iNITAG to be included in the priority group A4.)

The government is set to start vaccinating individuals under the A4 priority group, or those considered as essential workers, in Metro Manila and eight other areas once vaccine supply is steady.

READ: Vax rollout for essential workers, indigents to focus first in ‘NCR Plus 8’ — DOH

Meanwhile, liquified petroleum gas (LPG) dealers, retailers and attendants have been approved to be under A4.2 priority group, under retail trade operators and frontliners, Roque said.

EDV