‘Bakuna by the Sea’: Picturesque seaside vaccination set for Davao’s travel, hospitality workers
Davao City is spearheading an “innovative” vaccination program for travel and hospitality employees, including A4 priority group members.
Dubbed “Bakuna by the Sea,” the vaccination program will be held at the seaside tropical garden of the Waterfront Insular Hotel Pavilion from June 30 to July 2.
Tourism Secretary Berna Romulo-Puyat thanked Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio for including tourism industry workers in the city’s vaccination priority group, and the private sector for helping organize the unique vaccination program. She added that it would further spur the recovery of tourism in Davao—an industry that bore the brunt of the pandemic.
The program has allocated 14,000 doses of Sinovac vaccines for the initial 7,000 tourism workers, including those in the A4 Priority Group. According to Davao LGU, around 6,000 tourism workers in the city have already pre-registered for inoculation.
“This special vaccination program for tourism workers should be replicated across the country. I hope that other local government units in the country will follow suit so we can bring back the thousands of tourism jobs that were lost amid the pandemic,” SecretaryPuyat said.
“Let us remember that we are a community, and we are not just protecting ourselves but the people around us. As tourism workers who have to interact with so many different people face to face, your health and safety are important. This is a pivotal step in the road to recovery as we need to do it together,” she added.
Last week, the Bohol local government began inoculating their tourism workers after the arrival of 10,000 doses of Russian COVID-19 brand Gamaleya Sputnik V vaccines in the province. Initiated by the National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 through the DOT, the program seeks to vaccinate 5,000 tourism workers on the island.
As of June 24, 7,015 tourism workers from seven regions in the country have already been inoculated against COVID-19.