RELIEVED Overseas Filipino workers line up at a special lane at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ
MANILA, Philippines — While Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) bound for Singapore are not being required to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the Department of Labor and Employment said the city-state only requires new arrivals to undergo quarantine and swab tests.
Saul De Vries, Philippine labor Attaché in Singapore, said vaccination is not a condition being required by Singapore for migrant workers since they are automatically included in its vaccination program.
“It is not a condition for OFWs to be inoculated before departing for their jobs. However, the Singapore government requires them to undergo a 21-day institutional quarantine and take RT-PCR test thrice,” he said in a statement over the weekend.
De Vries further said that most of the OFWs departing abroad belong to the health care industry, thus most of them have received vaccine jabs.
“I believe that most, if not all, of our OFWs in the health care industry, have already been vaccinated since they are included in the priority group listing,” De Vries noted.
The latest data from DOLE indicated that there are around 200,000 OFWs in Singapore, of which around 6,000 to 10,000 have been displaced since the pandemic started last year.