Hanoi (VNA) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has recently decided to ease anoverseas travel ban on the country’s nurses and other medical workers to allowmore to take jobs abroad.
Those Duterte exemptedfrom the ban will now include any workers with overseas contracts anddocumentation completed as of August 31, his spokesman Harry Roque told a mediabriefing on September 21. He added that the president’s decision would benefit1,500 health personnel.
Healthcare workersfrom the Philippines are on the front lines of the pandemic at hospitals in theUnited States, Europe and the Middle East as well as at home.
The government inApril barred nurses, doctors and other medical workers from leaving, sayingthey were needed to fight the coronavirus crisis in the Philippines, which isstill tackling its first wave of infections.
The country has thehighest number of recorded coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia with286,743 cases, including 4,984 deaths.
On the day, Indonesiareported 4,176 new cases – the highest number recorded in one day. The tallynow reaches 248,852, including 9,677 fatalities./.