Nurses for jabs? Philippines offers to lift cap on health workers traveling abroad...if UK & Germany donate vaccines

The Philippines has offered to lift the cap stopping nurses and other healthcare workers from leaving the country if the United Kingdom and Germany send Covid-19 vaccines in exchange.

Though the country currently has a 5,000 person per year limit for healthcare workers leaving the country, International Labour Affairs Bureau Director Alice Visperas told Reuters the government was “considering the request to lift the deployment cap” – but only if an agreement for at least 600,000 Covid-19 vaccines can be made.

The vaccines would be used “to inoculate outbound workers and hundreds of thousands of Filipino repatriates.”

The concept of a nurses-for-vaccines swap was slammed by Filipino Nurses United official Jocelyn Andamo, who said she was “disgusted” by “how nurses and healthcare workers are being treated by the government as commodities or export products.”

The Philippines has recorded over 560,000 cases of Covid-19 and 12,107 deaths since the start of the pandemic, making it the 31st most affected country. The UK is the 5th most affected country with over 4,100,000 cases and 120,988 deaths, while Germany is the 10th most affected with 2,400,000 cases and 68,365 deaths.

Despite being one of the most affected countries, the UK has also had one of the most successful vaccine rollout programs, with over 18 million doses administered.

While the Philippines has not yet begun its mass vaccination program, it has ordered four different vaccines from several different countries – China's Sinovac jab, the US-German Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the UK's AstraZeneca-Oxford University shot, as well as Russia's Sputnik V. The first batch of vaccines, donated by China, is expected to arrive this week.

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