Philippines offers nurses in exchange for coronavirus vaccines from UK, Germany

Manila is open to lifting the cap on health care workers going overseas if it can get Covid-19 vaccines, but Britain said it is not interested in such a deal

Nurses are among the millions of Filipinos who work overseas, providing over US$30 billion a year in remittances vital to the country’s economy

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There are about 30,000 Filipinos working for Britain’s National Health Service, but London said it did not need to trade vaccines for more nurses. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:17pm, 24 Feb 2021Updated: 2:26pm, 24 Feb 2021

The Philippines will let thousands of its health care workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate coronavirus vaccines, a senior official said on Tuesday.

But Britain’s health ministry said it was not interested in such a deal and its priority was to use shots domestically, although it would share surplus vaccine internationally in the future.

The Philippines, which has among Asia’s highest number of coronavirus cases, has relaxed a ban on deploying its health care workers overseas, but still limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year.

Alice Visperas, director of the labour ministry’s international affairs bureau, said the Philippines was open to lifting the cap in exchange for vaccines from Britain and Germany, which it would use to inoculate outbound workers and hundreds of thousands of Filipino repatriates.

Nurses are among the millions of Filipinos who work overseas, providing in excess of US$30 billion a year in remittances vital to the country’s economy.

“We are considering the request to lift the deployment cap, subject to agreement,” Visperas said.