Philippines ends overseas travel ban on health care workers

Philippines ends overseas travel ban on health care workers

Philippines ends overseas travel ban on health care workers

Philippines ends overseas travel ban on health care workers

Newly graduated nurses gesture while having their picture taken by a friend before the oath taking ceremony of the professional nurses inside a mall in Manila. (REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo)

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Philippines ends overseas travel ban on health care workers

Improving COVID-19 situation paves way for lifting of ban

Gov't to allow 5,000 health care workers to leave annually

Updated 21 November 2020

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MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has approved ending a ban on deploying the nation's health care workers, his labor minister said on Saturday, clearing the way for thousands of nurses to take up jobs overseas.

"The president already approved the lifting of the temporary suspension of deployment of nurses and other medical workers,“ Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello told Reuters.

Bello said the spread of the novel coronavirus was slowing down in the country and conditions were improving, so the government could afford to let its health care workers leave.

The Philippines has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Southeast Asia, but daily case numbers and death rates have dropped.

To ensure the Philippines has enough medical professionals to continue to fight the pandemic at home, only 5,000