IATF increases deployment cap on healthcare workers

Pedestrians walk past a tribute mural for frontliners painted by Angono artists at the triage area of the Mission Hospital in Pasig City on June 15, 2021.
The STAR/Miguel de Guzman

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines can now send up to 6,500 healthcare workers abroad yearly after the pandemic response task force increased the number of healthcare workers who can be deployed each year.

Malacañang announced Friday that newly-hired healthcare workers with perfected contracts as of May 31 shall form part of the adjusted deployment cap.

It added that healthcare workers under government-to-government labor agreements shall be exempted from the ceiling.

The government previously set a deployment cap of 5,000 healthcare workers annually in November 2020 after it lifted a deployment ban designed to prevent local hospitals from being undermanned amid the COVID-19 pandemic. — Xave Gregorio

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