Coronavirus vaccines: Philippines offers to allow nurses to work in the UK and Germany in exchange for shots

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The UK Ministry of Health said it was not interested in such an agreement and its priority was to use vaccines domestically, but added that it would distribute the surplus vaccine internationally in the future.
The Philippines, one of the largest cases of coronavirus in Asia, has relaxed the ban on the deployment of health workers abroad, but still limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year.

Alice Visperas, director of the international affairs office of the Ministry of Labor, said the Philippines is open to raising the ceiling in exchange for vaccines from Britain and Germany, which it will use to inoculate foreign workers and hundreds of thousands of Filipino returnees.

Nurses are among millions of Filipinos working abroad, providing more than $ 30 billion a year in vital remittances to the country’s economy.

“We are considering the request to raise the deployment ceiling, subject to agreement,” Visperas told Reuters.

The UK has the fifth highest number of coronavirus deaths in the world, while Germany has the 10th highest number of infections globally.

The UK has said it is working with 11,000 more nurses in the National Health Service (NHS) than last year. He said that while he was grateful to the 30,000 Filipinos working for the NHS, the UK did not have to market vaccines for more.

“We have no plans for the UK to agree on a vaccination agreement with the Philippines related to the subsequent recruitment of nurses,” a health ministry spokeswoman said, citing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s commitment to share backup photos later. during the year.

“We have confirmed that we will distribute any surplus vaccines in the future – for example through the COVAX international procurement fund.”

The Philippines wants to deliver a total of 148 million doses of vaccine, while the United Kingdom has ordered more than 400 million doses, six times its population.

While Britain and Germany have inoculated 23 million people, the Philippines has not yet started the immunization campaign for 70 million adults, or two-thirds of the 108 million people. The first vaccines donated by China are expected this week.

Calls for a German mission in Manila went unanswered.

In 2019, nearly 17,000 Filipino nurses signed employment contracts abroad, government data show.

While Filipino assistants have struggled to lift the ban on getting rid of poor working conditions and low wages at home, the vaccine workers’ plan has not gone down well with some health workers.

“We are disgusted with the way nurses and health workers are being treated by the government as commodities or export products,” Jocelyn Andamo, secretary general of National Assistants in the Philippines, told Reuters.

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