By Fernan Angeles
The Philippine government maintained its overseas deployment ban on health workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a resolution issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the temporary ban on deployment of medical workers and those in the allied services to other countries was further extended.
The IATF resolution said the temporary suspension of the overseas deployment of medical and allied health workers was due to the continuing state of public health emergency caused by the pandemic.
“For this purpose, the DOH (Department of Health) and all hospitals and healthcare facilities of local government units and entities are enjoined to hire these medical and allied health workers to supplement their current workforce,” IATF said on Monday.
The IATF said only healthcare workers who have signed employment contracts as of March 8 will be allowed to leave the country.
In an earlier statement, Malacañang cited the need to impose the deployment ban to ensure the safety of Filipino healthcare workers amid the pandemic, which has killed more than 770,000 people worldwide, including 2,681 individuals in the Philippines.