THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers appealed to the government to elevate teachers in the vaccine priority list and provide urgent assistance to those who contract the coronavirus disease.

Teachers are in the second tier of vaccine prioritization, following the health workers, senior citizens, persons with comorbidities, frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel, and the poor.

The group made the call following reports that 49 personnel of the Department of Education in Zambales province tested positive for Covid19 and the marked increase in the number of infected teachers in the National Capital Region amid the new pandemic surge in the country.

The group said that based on its  monitoring, 70 teaching and 21 non-teaching personnel were infected in Quezon City. Five of them succumbed to the disease.

It added that Numancia Residences, a teacher housing area in Manila, was locked down recently after recording 14 positive cases, 4 of whom were teachers and 10 were family members.

Half of them were forced to go to private hospitals and shoulder their own medical expenses while the other half were left to isolate in their homes due to overcapacity of public hospitals.

Meanwhile, a public school in Pasay City reported 10 individuals who were home quarantined and 1 person in a quarantine facility.

Reports also showed that they received no financial support from DepEd.

Las Piñas City reported 1 death and 6 active cases, 3 of which were home quarantined and 3 in a quarantine facility; Navotas City reported 5 previously recorded recovered cases and 1 death; while Marikina City accounted for 21 active cases, all in a quarantine facility. These patients reportedly received support from their local government but none from the DepEd.

“We are alarmed by the government’s continuous neglect of our teachers’ welfare. It is an affront to their efforts and morale as education frontliners who are tirelessly working to salvage the distressing state of our education amid the pandemic. Our teachers only deserve to be in the government’s top priorities in the vaccination program,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretart general, said in a statement.

“Teachers should be considered frontline personnel in essential sectors as they deliver education amid the pandemic. Many of those infected have contracted the virus as they perform their duties  — while reporting to schools, attending DepEd seminars and doing home visitation. This only shows how precarious the work of teachers is amid the health crisis,” Basilio added.

He said teachers should be accorded other protection mechanisms and medical support such as the grant of 15-day sick leave.