THE Department of Education (DepEd) expressed gratitude to President Duterte and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on Emerging Infectious Disease for including basic education frontliners in the A4 priority category of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
“The Department of Education would like to thank President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and the IATF for approving the appeal of Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones to finally include basic education frontliners in the A4 priority category of the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan”, according to a statement issued on Friday.
The department also said, as reiterated by the President, vaccination is a key component of any roadmap to the resumption of face-to-face classes.
“With the adjustment of vaccine prioritization (from B1 to A4) for basic education frontliners, we can speed up the rollout of vaccines among our teachers”.
The Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS) also welcomed the decision of the Inter Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID) to include frontline media workers in the government’s priority list for Covid-19 vaccination.
“The inclusion of media workers in the A4 priority group highlights President Rodrigo Duterte’s policy of safeguarding press freedom by protecting the life, liberty, and security of our media workers. We recognized the support of the IATF especially Vaccine Czar Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr, Testing Czar Secretary Vince Dizon and of course Senator Bong Go and Secretary Martin Andanar who pushed to include media workers in the priority list,” PTFoMS Executive Director Usec. Joel Sy Egco said.
Earlier the PTFoMS, through Usec. Egco and PTFoMS Co-Chairman and Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Sec. Andanar, asked the IATF for the inclusion of media workers in the A4 priority group.
