Gov’t approves UK exemption from nurses ban

MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has endorsed the United Kingdom’s request to be exempted from the 5,000 cap on Filipino nurses allowed to leave the country for jobs overseas.

He said he approved the exemption after being assured by the Philippine Nurses Association that the country has around 800,000 registered nurses.

The government had limited the number of nurses who could work overseas to 5,000 a year to ensure that it would not run out of health workers during the pandemic.

Bello made his recommendation to the Cabinet task force on pandemic policies after the UK Embassy formally replied to his request to have the nurses vaccinated against COVID-19 before their deployment.

—Dona Z. Pazzibugan