The Philippines said this week that they are willing to send more nurses to work in the UK and Germany if those countries send extra doses of the coronavirus vaccine, highlighting the difficulties in some countries in gaining access to vaccines.
The UK and Germany collectively vaccinated 23 million people, while the Philippines has not yet started, Reuters reported. The country should receive the first doses of the vaccine this week from China.
The Philippines generally limits the number of medical professionals leaving the country to 5,000.
“We are considering the request to lift the deployment limit, subject to an agreement,” Alice Visperas, director of the international relations office at the Ministry of Labor, told Reuters.
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Britain, however, has said it does not need more Filipino nurses and is prioritizing immunization of the British first, but still plans to send overdose of vaccine later this year. The UK already has 30,000 Filipino nurses working in the country.
“We confirm that we will share any surplus vaccines in the future – for example, through COVAX’s international purchasing pool,” said a spokeswoman for the UK health ministry, referring to the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, which aims to distribute 2.3 billion vaccines worldwide, many to poor countries at no cost. WHO delivered its first vaccines through the COVAX program to Ghana this week.
The United States also plans to donate several billion dollars to COVAX.
Filipino Nurses United Secretary General Jocelyn Andamo said the Philippine government is offering to trade nurses as “commodities” in offering them for vaccines.
“We are disgusted with the way nurses and healthcare professionals are being treated by the government as commodities or export products,” she told Reuters.
The United Kingdom 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, Reuters reported.