(FILE) Workers (top R) stand on scaffolding at a construction site in Manila on May 10, 2018. (Photo by NOEL CELIS / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — Construction and factory workers should be included in the A1 priority group of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination list, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Wednesday.
“Finally they (other government agencies) realized the value of our workers. You should belong to the A1 category,” Bello told factory and construction laborers during the Rebound, Recover 1Million Jobs for 2021, a special vaccination program.
The labor chief added that constriction and factory workers should be considered as frontliners for their efforts to foster the country’s economy.
Bello noted that manufacturing and construction workers must be taken care of as they are the frontliners of the economy as health workers are frontliners for the medical sector.
A partnership between the government and the private sector, the Rebound, Recover 1Million Jobs for 2021 project paved the way for the administration of the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines on 1,000 workers. They are set to receive their second jabs on October 6.
The allotted vaccine doses for the event are from the nearly 500,000 special allocations which are seen to expedite the opening of the economy.
The Department of Labor and Employment is eyeing to immunize 400,000 workers in the construction and manufacturing sectors starting Wednesday.
Further, Bello expressed his appreciation to vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. for approving the DOLE’s request for vaccine doses for the construction and manufacturing sectors.
RELATED STORIES
DOLE to start vaccinating over 400,000 construction, manufacturing workers on Wednesday
DOLE urged to probe firms enforcing ‘no vaccine, no work’ policy
Vaccinated Hong Kong-bound OFWs to be allowed entry starting Aug. 30