Transport agency may use train stations and ports as vaccine sites

THE DEPARTMENT of Transportation might set up mobile vaccination sites at various train stations and ports nationwide, according to an official.

“Secretary Arthur P. Tugade had already issued an instruction to all of us to look into the possibility of also opening up mobile vaccination sites in the rail system, in our ports, in our airports,” Undersecretary Artemio U. Tuazon, Jr. told an online news briefing on Wednesday.

The agency was coordinating with the National Vaccination Operations Center to qualify certain sites for vaccination, he added.

The Transportation department and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) are using the Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange (PITX) as a vaccination site on Jan. 24 to 28.

Meanwhile, unvaccinated and partially vaccinated workers in Metro Manila would be given 30 days to continue using public transportation, Mr. Tuazon said.

“We want our workers to get fully vaccinated especially now that there is no longer a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines, and there is a threat of highly transmissible variants of the virus,” he said.

Mr. Tugade on Jan. 11 issued an order limiting public transportation access to vaccinated people in the National Capital Region (NCR) under Alert Level 3 or higher. The ban took effect on Jan. 17.

Senators have called the ban confusing after the Labor department said workers were not covered by the ban. — Norman P. Aquino