Tourism frontliners now included in A1 vaccine priority group — DOT

Displaced workers due to the coronavirus pandemic. Image from Facebook/Department of Tourism

MANILA, Philippines — Tourism frontline workers are now included in the government’s to priority list for vaccination, alongside health care workers and medical frontliners.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) said in a statement Friday that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of the Emerging Infectious Diseases approved its request to include quarantine and isolation hotel workers under the A1 priority group.

“We are very pleased to inform you that the request for inclusion of frontline employees in accommodation establishments used as isolation or quarantine hotels in the Priority Population Group A1, has been favorably acted upon,” read a May 15 letter from vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr. addressed to DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat.

Puyat lauded the inclusion of frontline tourism workers, saying it would greatly benefit the tourism industry and its stakeholders.

“Most of our tourism workers were reporting for work even at the onset of the pandemic while most of the cities and municipalities were still under an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ). It is high time that we protect our tourism frontliners knowing that they are risking their lives each time they show up in the designated quarantine and isolation hotels,” the tourism chief said.

“This move shows the government’s commitment to protect them. Not only will this decision help ensure the survival of the tourism industry; this will also hasten the country’s economic recovery,” she added.

The DOT, meanwhile, reported that a total of 2,507 employees of quarantine hotels nationwide have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

EDV