UPDATE 1-Philippines offers nurses in exchange for vaccines from Britain, Germany

(Adds British response)
By Neil Jerome Morales
MANILA, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The Philippines will let
thousands of its healthcare workers, mostly nurses, take up jobs
in Britain and Germany if the two countries agree to donate
coronavirus vaccines, a senior official said on Tuesday.
Britain's health ministry said it was not interested in such
a deal and its priority was to use shots domestically, but said
it would share surplus vaccine internationally in the future.
The Philippines, which has among Asia's highest number of
coronavirus cases, has relaxed a ban on deploying its healthcare
workers overseas, but still limits the number of medical
professionals leaving the country to 5,000 a year.
Alice Visperas, director of the labour ministry's
international affairs bureau, said the Philippines was open to
lifting the cap in exchange for vaccines from Britain and
Germany, which it would use to inoculate outbound workers and
hundreds of thousands of Filipino repatriates.
Nurses are among the millions of Filipinos who work
overseas, providing in excess of $30 billion a year in
remittances vital to the country's economy.
"We are considering the request to lift the deployment cap,
subject to agreement," Visperas told Reuters.
Britain has the world's fifth-highest coronavirus death
toll, while Germany has the 10th most infections globally.
Britain said there were 11,000 more nurses working in the
National Health Service than last year. It said that while it
was grateful to the 30,000 Filipinos working for the NHS,
Britain did not need to trade vaccines for more.
"We have no plans for the UK to agree a vaccine deal with
the Philippines linked to further recruitment of nurses," a
health ministry spokeswoman said, citing Prime Minister Boris
Johnson's pledge to share spare shots later in the year.
"We have confirmed that we will share any surplus vaccines
in the future - for example through the COVAX international
procurement pool."
The Philippines wants to secure 148 million doses of
vaccines altogether, while Britain has ordered more than 400
million doses, six times its population.
While Britain and Germany have inoculated a combined 23
million people, the Philippines has yet to start its campaign to
immunise 70 million adults, or two-thirds of its 108 million
people. It expects its first vaccines this week, donated by
China.
Calls to Germany's mission in Manila went unanswered.
In 2019, almost 17,000 Filipino nurses signed overseas work
contracts, government data showed. While Filipino nurses have fought to lift the deployment ban
to escape poor working conditions and low pay at home, the
workers-for-vaccine plan has not gone down well with some
medical workers.
"We are disgusted on how nurses and healthcare workers are
being treated by the government as commodities or export
products," Jocelyn Andamo, secretary general of the Filipino
Nurses United, told Reuters.