A DAVAO City councilor is calling for the immediate vaccination of workers under Priority Group A4 category and installing vaccination hubs for economic frontliners.
Councilor Pamela Librado-Morata filed on Tuesday, June 29, a resolution urging the Department of Health (DOH)-Davao and the Davao City Health Office (CHO) to provide special vaccination hubs or special lane for the city's labor force under A4, particularly those working in industries at 100 percent operational capacity under modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) and other succeeding quarantine status.
"Considering the working hours of workers in the above-stated industries, a special lane or vaccination hub can cater to them on their free time, which will be helpful to curb the rise in positive cases of Covid[-19] in the city and further prevent local transmission," the councilor said in her resolution.
She suggested that the city should have a special lane or vaccination hub that can cater to them in their free time, similar to the Quezon City Government, wherein they launched a program to inoculate workers even after office hours.
Librado-Morata, committee chairperson on labor and employment opportunities, said A4, considered as “essential workers,” should be prioritized in the vaccination.
"There is an immediate need for our essential workers under A4 category to be vaccinated earlier and to be prioritized in the list as their line of work makes them vulnerable to the virus, owing to the fact that they are exposed to a lot of people on a regular basis, commute to and from work daily and these very people power the economy in these hard and trying times," she said.
The councilor specifically called for the urgent vaccination of labor sectors in the business process outsourcing (BPO) and similar industries that encounter difficulty in complying with health protocols due to their workplace set-up, nature of work, including work-related exposure that makes them prone to transmit the virus unknowingly.
She also called for the immediate vaccination of delivery riders, cashiers, security guards, bank employees, food sector and pharmacy workers.
Prior to the implementation of the MECQ in Davao City beginning June 5, the councilor said there was an alarming number of positive cases officially reported involving more than 600 BPO workers and counting in the city.
She also reported that 44 employees of the City Council tested positive for coronavirus after a mass swab test conducted on May 29.
Prioritizing A4 in the vaccination list can help bring back consumer confidence, preserve economic institutions, and even protect other health workers and frontliners, Librado-Morata said.
Citing report from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the councilor said the Philippine economy shrank by another 8.3 percent in the last three months of 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic hindered consumer spending and business activity, bringing full-year economic growth to -9.5 percent in 2020.
The resolution was also passed for first reading.
SunStar Davao is still trying to reach out to Davao City Covid-19 Vaccine Cluster head Dr. Josephine Villafuerte and CHO Acting Head Dr. Ashley Lopez for their response on Librado-Morata's proposal.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, however, said the City is not planning to have a night-time vaccination rollout for now.
"The main concern with the night-time vaccination is number one, ang kakayahan sa atoang personnel nga mag-24-hour shifting sa vaccination center, and ang kakayahan sa atoang public transportation kung duna bay available para sa tao ana (the capacity of our personnel to conduct 24-hour shifting in vaccination center, and the capacity of our public transportation if there are available vehicles for these people)," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio on June 21.
According to the Davao City Vaccination Cluster as of June 28, a total of 2,790 A4 workers are already vaccinated in the city.