Davao City allots Sinovac jabs to 7,000 tourism workers in the city

Vaccination drive in Davao City. Image from Facebook/ City Government of Davao

MANILA, Philippines — Some 7,000 tourism workers in Davao City are set to receive COVID-19 vaccines from the Davao City government, the Department of Tourism (DOT) announced on Tuesday.

Berna Romulo-Puyat said the vaccination program will be held at the seaside tropical garden of the Waterfront Insular Hotel Pavilion from June 30 to July 2.

The workers will receive Sinovac vaccines from the allocation of the Davao City government through a private-public initiative.

“The recent designation of the NCR Plus area as a low-risk area is a welcome sign that the national vaccination program is working, and we hope to see this replicated in Davao as soon as possible,” Puyat said.

There are 14,000 doses of Sinovac allotted for the initial 7,000 tourism workers, according to DOT.

The local government of Davao said around 6,000 tourism workers have already pre-registered for the vaccine.

“This special vaccination program for tourism workers should be replicated across the country,” Puyat said.

“I hope that other local government units in the country will follow suit so we can bring back the thousands of tourism jobs that were lost amid the pandemic,” she added.

Last week, the local government of Bohol also began the vaccination of tourism workers after the arrival of 10,000 Sputnik-V doses  in the province.

As of last week, 7,015 tourism workers from seven regions in the country already received their COVID-19 vaccines, DOT said.

EDV