MANDAUE CITY, Cebu -- The Philippine government is keen on completely inoculating the country's tourism sector workers against COVID-19 by the end of 2021.

This was the target set by cabinet secretaries and COVID-19 task force officials during the ceremonial vaccination for tourism industry workers held in Cebu on Friday.

"When the pandemic struck, the nation's tourism sector took a major hit. We believe that in order for the industry to get back on its feet and safely open our economy, we need to vaccinate as many members of our workforce as possible," said National Task Force against COVID 19 Chief Implementer and vaccine czar Secretary Carlito G. Galvez, Jr.

There are currently more than five million individuals in the country who are part of the tourism workforce or employed in tourism-related establishments across the country.

The vaccine czar emphasized the need to vaccinate tourism workers, especially those working in major tourist destinations in the country such as Cebu.

Galvez noted that about 50% of the province's tourism workers have already been vaccinated.

Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the agency aims to fully vaccinate 99% of its tourism workers in Cebu before Christmas.

Romulo-Puyat shared that the NTF has committed to allocate a specific volume of vaccine doses for tourism workers that will come from the supplies to be shipped to local government units nationwide.

The tourism chief said Galvez had approved an allocation of 20,000 doses per week for tourism workers. (National Task Force against COVID 19)

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