Coronavirus: Philippines stops health workers from leaving country

The nation only has six doctors for every 10,000 people, according to the WHO. Singapore’s ratio is almost 23 and Malaysia’s is 15.36

Thousands of Filipino medical practitioners work overseas, but they are now needed at home to reinforce an overwhelmed health care system

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A nurse holds a vial of blood at a testing centre in Manila. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:23pm, 11 Apr 2020Updated: 10:40pm, 11 Apr 2020

The Philippines has temporarily barred doctors, nurses and other health workers from leaving for overseas work as the nation seeks to stem the coronavirus outbreak, a move that irked its top diplomat who pledged to fight the ban.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration issued a resolution on April 2 halting the departure of workers in 14 medical professions for the duration of the nation’s state of emergency.

The ban should have been announced weeks ago instead of catching Filipino workers by surprise, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said in his official Twitter account.

Nurses returning to their posts at the U.K.’s National Health Service were recently stopped at the Manila airport, he said.

“The fight is not over. We will fight the ban in the cabinet,” Locsin said on Twitter. “We will never surrender our constitutional right to travel and our contractual right to work where there is need for work.”