More than 70 percent of tourism workers in Metro Manila working in Department of Tourism-accredited quarantine facilities, isolation facilities, multiple-use hotels, and staycation hotels, under the A1 and A4 vaccination groups have been vaccinated against Covid-19, Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said.
As of Aug. 9, a total of 19,315 out of 26,745 or 72 percent of tourism front-liners from the 16 cities and one municipality in Metro Manila have been vaccinated.
A total of 15,020 of the 20,061 tourism workers are in the A1 group (quarantine/isolation/multiple-use hotels) and 4,295 out of the 6,684 in the A4 group (regular/staycation hotels).
The total number is based on the list submitted by 455 DOT-accredited accommodation establishments (402 from the A1 group and 53 from the A4 group).
“The vaccination of our tourism workers is a necessary step to keep them protected while doing their duty in the frontlines. These figures are of high importance especially with the threat of the Delta variant,” Romulo-Puyat said.
“We are confident that we will be able to vaccinate 100 percent of tourism workers from DOT-accredited accommodation establishments from Metro Manila before the end of the ECQ period,” she added.
In May, the National Task Force Against Covid-19 announced that frontline tourism workers in isolation facilities or quarantine hotels would be part of the A1 priority group (medical front-liners) in the government’s Covid-19 vaccination program.
The DOT, through its NCR office, has also facilitated the vaccination of workers in DOT-accredited restaurants.
As of Aug. 9, 1,245 out of the 4,479 workers in the list submitted by 202 restaurants in Metro Manila have been vaccinated.
DOT-accredited accommodation establishments that have yet to submit their list of tourism workers for vaccination can get in touch with the DOT-NCR through e-mail dotncr.tourism.regulation@tourism.gov.ph or telephone number 8459-5200 local 108.
Source: Philippines News Agency