Basic education frontliners urged to register
The City Government of Valenzuela begins the COVID-19 vaccination for the first batch of the A4 priority list or the economic frontliners today, June 12, in two (2) vaccination sites in the City.
Pasolo Elementary School in Barangay Pasolo caters to the vaccination of around 600 industry workers, while Valenzuela City People’s Park Amphitheater is allotted for the vaccination of 800 basic education frontliners or teachers.
Apart from the two (2) vaccination sites exclusively for A4, Valenzuela City also simultaneously runs six (6) other vaccination sites in the City to continue to inoculate those under the A1 to A3 priority list.
In the opening of the vaccination of the A4 priority list, the local government urges Valenzuela City-based companies to submit their list of employees willing to be vaccinated and register at www.valtrace.appcase.net for the schedule of the vaccination appointments. The City still strictly abides by the vaccination appointment system to efficiently manage its available vaccines and to observe the proper health protocols and capacity of each vaccination site.
“We designated industry vaccine sites because the volume of workers (A4) being processed is very big per company and we don’t want our industry based clients to crowd out… In the industry vaccination site, instead of individuals being given appointments, it’s the corporations being given appointments. In their respective appointment, the company can bring their employees in batches at their own pace so that we don’t hamper their own operations,” Valenzuela City Mayor REX Gatchalian stated.
Those under the A4 priority list are private sector employees who are required to work outside of their place of residence, employees of government agencies, government corporations, and local government units, and informal sector workers. The A4 priority list has previously expanded to include teachers or basic education frontliners as approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases last April.
With this, the City Government of Valenzuela urges teachers and non-teaching staff to register and get vaccinated against COVID-19 as they are essential workers with a higher risk to be infected by the disease. Teachers are also dubbed as modern day heroes as they mobilized learning continuity throughout the pandemic.
Meanwhile, around ten (10) companies in the City’s first district were accommodated at Pasolo Elementary School. Accounting to a total of around 600 employees, the companies are mostly from the manufacturing and production industry – an industry Valenzuela City is known for.
While still challenged by vaccine hesitancy, Mr. Gerardo Mago II, President of Valenzuela City Tripartite Industrial Peace Council – Labor Sector, stresses that leaders and managers should encourage their employees to be vaccinated by being role models for the protection of the community.
“Hindi lang yung sarili mo ‘yung pino-proteksyunan mo, [pati] ‘yung kapwa [mo] manggagawa, ‘yung pamilya mo, at iyong mismong komunidad. Ini-encourage ko lahat ng mga manggagawa na magpa-vaccine… Ang manggagawa simple lang mag-isip, parang follow-the-leader ‘yan ‘eh… Na-encourage ko na sila ngayon, nagpapa-inject na sila [ng vaccine],” Mr. Mago said.
To the safe reopening of the economy, Mr. Peter Quintana of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Valenzuela believes that herd immunity in a micro-scale will impact industries largely, as companies with majority of its employees vaccinated against COVID-19 will achieve herd immunity within the workplace.
“We encourage ang ating mga empleyado ay ma-vaccinate… Kung gusto natin na mag-open up ang ating economy unahin natin yung mga empleyado para ‘yung movement nila hindi mare-restrict, at saka sa trabaho hindi magkakahawahan,” Mr. Quintana said.
“We will be a good boost to the economy, so itong na-start natin sa Valenzuela for companies ay isang mahalagang hakbang upang maging magkaroon ng herd immunity per company then magiging mas maluwag ang movement sa loob ng isang company,” he added.
