Inclusion of bgy workers in A4 vaccine list lauded
DEPUTY Speaker and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. welcomed the inclusion of barangay workers in A4 vaccination priority group.
Abante has sent a letter to the National Task Force against COVID-19 chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez appealing for the inclusion of barangay health workers in the priority list.
“There is no better way to thank our barangay frontliners than by providing them with the protection they need to safely continue selflessly serving our communities,” Abante said.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) granted Abante’s request to include barangay kagawads, tanods, and Sangguniang Kabataan officials in the A4 vaccination priority group.
In the letter, Galvez informed Abante that IATF Resolution No. 117 s. of 2021, the Manila solon’s request for the inclusion of the barangay workers “has already been favorably acted upon and granted.”
“As now reflected in the aforementioned IATF Resolution, employees in government agencies and instrumentalities, including government-owned and controlled corporations and local government units are included under Priority Group A4,” Galvez told Abante.
Abante had written Galvez, through Cabinet Secretary and IATF co-chair Karlo Nograles, urging the IATF to treat barangay personnel as frontliners in the barangay as they “help and assist local health officers in tracking and monitoring COVID patients, deliver ayuda house to house, assist and facilitate hospitalization of COVID cases in the barangays when needed, and work at night to implement curfew as per IATG guidelines.”
The legislator thanked Galvez, Nograles, and the IATF for immediately acting on his request and for sharing his sentiments that barangay officials, as essential workers and immediate responders, deserve to be included in the A4 group.
This IATF directive is also timely as it coincides with the expected arrival of over 10 million doses this month.
“Ngayon makakahinga ng malalim ang ating mga taga-barangay dahil alam nila mabibigyan sila ng dagdag na proteksyon laban sa COVID virus,” he said.
