Vaccination of economic frontliners to boost economic recovery, gov't officials
The Philippine economy is expected to further recover as the government started on Monday the vaccination of priority group A4 or economic frontliners.
The government conducted a symbolic vaccination of 50 members of A4 in a mall in Pasay City. About 35 million Filipinos belong to A4 or workers from the public and priave sectors, including informal and self-employed workers who are required to physically report to their work or have been assigned on the field.
Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, in a televised press briefing after the symbolic vaccination, said the vaccination of economic frontliners is needed for the continuous recovery of the local economy.
"That's why this what we call as 'shot in the arm' that is really needed by the economic frontliners and also needed by our economy so that those improvements that we have been seeing, the signs of economic recovery will continue and won't stop from time to time," he said.
Lopez said economic recovery is being hampered because whenever there is a surge in COVID-19 cases in certain places, the government needs to declare lockdowns or other stringent measures to restrict movements of people.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, in the same briefing, said the inoculation of economic frontliners could be considered as a "game changer" as this could be a "signal for the recovery of the Philippine economy."
He said the distribution and administraiton of vaccines for A4 have two phases - for the A4 workers in the National Capital Region Plus 8 areas, namely Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Batangas, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao; and A4 workers outside the NCR Plus 8.
The NCR Plus 8 are areas where there are high cases of COVID-19.
With still limited vaccine supply, Roque said the 40- to 59-year-old economic frontliners could be prioritized.
As of June 6, National Task Force Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Czar Carlito Galvez Jr., in the same press briefing, said 5,965,651 individuals have been vacinated.
Of the about 14 million population in NCR, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chiarman Benhur Abalos said about 1.6 million individuals have received their first dose and about 600,000 for the second dose.
He said Metro Manila could even vacciante about 120,000 individuals per day once there is steady supply of the vaccines.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III urged those nine percent of vaccinees who have not yet received their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine to coordinate with their respective local government units.
"Regarding the 117,000 (individuals) who have not received yet their second dose of the vaccine, we can't say that it's a big problem because they can still have their vaccination. They only need to coordinate with their local governments, their City Health Office, and other health officials for the schedule of their second dose. That's why there's no problem, only nine percent have not yet received the second those," he said.
He stressed the importance of getting the second dose.
Among the reasons why some individuals failed to get yet their second shot were because they either got sick, had emergency or had other things to do on their scheduled date of vaccination, Duque said. Celerina Monte/DMS
