The Philippines said this week that it was prepared to send more nurses to the UK and Germany if the countries sent extra doses of coronavirus vaccines, highlighting some countries’ struggles to access vaccines.
The United Kingdom and Germany have vaccinated a total of 23 million people while the Philippines has not yet started, Reuters reports. The country is expected to receive its first vaccine doses from China this week.
The Philippines usually limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000.
“We are considering the request to lift the deployment limit, subject to agreement,” Alice Visperas, director of the Ministry of Labor for International Affairs, told Reuters.
WEAK COUNTRIES ARE LONG WAITING FOR DEPARTURE Despite promises
However, Britain has said it no longer needs Filipino nurses and is prioritizing British vaccination first, but still plans to send an excess dose of vaccinations later this year. The UK already has 30,000 Filipino nurses working in the country.
‘We have confirmed that we will be sharing any surplus vaccines in the future, for example through the international COVAX procurement pool,’ said a spokesman for the UK Ministry of Health, referring to the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, which stated: aimed at distributing 2.3 billion vaccines. around the world, many to poor countries at no cost. This week, the WHO delivered its first vaccines to Ghana via the COVAX program.
The US also plans to donate several billion dollars to COVAX.
Filipino Nurses United secretary-general Jocelyn Andamo said the Philippine government offered to offer nurses such as ‘commodities’ to offer it for vaccinations.
“We are disgusted at how nurses and health workers are treated by the government as commodities or export products,” she told Reuters.
The UK has ordered 400 million doses of the vaccine, which is about 6 times its population. The Philippines wants 148 million doses for its 70 million adults.
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Germany did not comment on the offer, reports Reuters.