DAVAO CITY, Philippines – As COVID-19 vaccination for workers starts this week, the Committee on Labor of the Davao City Council is pushing for special hubs and lanes for the workers to get their jab at their convenience.
During the regular session on June 30, Councilor Pamela Librado-Morata urges both the City Health Office (CHO) and the Department of Health Region XI (DOH-XI) for separate vaccination hubs and lanes that can cater inoculation of workers, who are categorized as A4, after their work and during weekends.
“Thousands of vaccines are due to arrive and hopefully vaccination for the A4 category can be started. Considering the working hours in the above-stated industries, a special lane or vaccination hub can cater to them during their free time, which will be helpful to curb the rise of COVID-19 cases in the city and further prevent local transmission,” the councilor said in her privilege speech.
Citing the ‘QC (Quezon City) Bakuna Nights’ as an example of an effective inoculation program, Librado-Morata said that installing special vaccination hubs for A4 or the workers will expand the reach of the city to inoculate more which will be helpful in curbing the rise of coronavirus infection especially in workplaces.
“Recognizing that many workers in the city cannot just leave work or don’t have time to visit a vaccination site during the day, these hubs can be made available even on Saturdays and Sundays and at 6 p.m. or after working hours on weekdays,” she said.
The councilor proposed to craft an ordinance designating specific vaccination schedules after working hours for workers to avoid absence from work to get their shot.
Under the proposed ordinance, Librado-Morata detailed that the CHO in coordination with DOH-XI will determine the locations for these hubs.
Vaccination sites
In a report of the Philippine Information Agency (PNA) in Davao, about 800 government employees under the A4 category are scheduled to get their first dose of inoculation until Friday this week at the University Of Southeastern Philippines (USEP) Obrero campus and the University of Philippines (UP) Mindanao campus.
Another vaccination site was launched on July 1 dubbed as ‘Bakuna by the Sea’ by the City Tourism Office, the Davao Tourism Association (DATA) and the management of Waterfront Insular Hotel where individuals from the tourism industry gathered to avail the Coronavac (Sinovac) shot. The city targets 14,000 tourism frontliners to be inoculated.
The City Government of Davao reported on its website that it has rolled out 184,123 jabs, including 149,095 first doses and 35,028 second doses as of June 21.
Those who have completed their vaccination include 23,259 healthcare workers, 9,769 senior citizens (A2) and 2,000 persons with comorbidities (A3).
Previously, about 600 workers from various business processing outsourcing (BPO) industries in the city got tested positive of COVID-19. Another 44 cases were also recorded in various offices in the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) building after a mass swab test was conducted last May 29.
The city government aims to vaccinate 70% of Davao City residents. Meanwhile, the city has recorded 24,651 total cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, 4,627 of which are active cases while 19,150 have recovered and 874 have died.
