MANILA — The vaccination of some 791,000 public school teachers and personnel against the coronavirus may start by June, the Department of Education said Monday.

"Siguro, mga June ito (vaccination) mag-umpisa. Kasi, by that time, mag-start na ang enrollment, marami nang activities sa [mga] eskuwelahan. Saka, kailangan protektado ang mga teacher," Education Secretary Leonor Briones said in a news briefing.

(The vaccination may start by June because by that time, enrollment will start, there will be many school activities and our teachers need to be protected.)

Video courtesy of PTV

Initially, over a million teachers and support staff were up for vaccination against COVID-19.

But the number was reduced because some of them have already been inoculated as part of other priority groups, such as senior citizens and people with comorbidities, Briones explained.

The education chief added that teachers no longer need to register because the DepEd already has a list for the vaccination program.

Last week, the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases announced that teaching and non-teaching personnel in schools moved up the government's COVID-19 vaccination priority list, to A4 from the B1 cluster.

• ‘Assured of protection’: Education frontliners move up COVID vaccine priority list
• Philippines eyes COVID-19 vaccination of frontline workers in mid-May, June

As of Sunday evening, over 1.2 million Filipinos have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccines while more than 198,000 have gotten 2 doses.

• Philippines: COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker

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