OFWs and Other Workers Under A4 Category to be Vaccinated in Mid-May to June
Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles announced on Monday, April 19, that the vaccination of individuals registered under the A4 category of the vaccination program in the Philippines will begin from mid-May to June.
Individuals included under the A4 category, or those in fourth priority under the vaccination program, are transportation workers, market vendors, religious leaders, and Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).
Nograles, who co-chairs the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID), explains that May and June will be the months where the Philippines will receive more COVID-19 vaccines.
Nograles stated, “Maybe by mid-May to June, we will receive the bulk of our vaccines we expect for the second quarter then for the third quarter, obviously more vaccines will come. So probably, by mid-May to June, we can start with A4.”
The A4 group is the next in line after medical health workers and frontliners (A1), senior citizens (A2), and individuals with comorbidities or those with multiple health problems (A3). The complete list can be found under your respective local government unit (LGU) website for citizen registrations for COVID-19 vaccines.
At present, the number of active cases in the country tallies at 141,089 as of April 18.
In April, the Philippine government is still expecting 1.5 million doses of vaccines developed by China’s Sinovac BioTech and 500,000 doses of Sputnik V developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Institute.