President Rodrigo Duterte has lifted the temporary ban on the deployment of nurses and other medical workers.

In a radio interview, Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Saturday said that newly hired Filipinos or those with contracts in the medical sectors are now allowed to leave the country.

“The President has ordered the lifting of the temporary suspension deployment in nurses and other medical workers. The ambassadors of Germany, the United Kingdom, and Italy have been requesting for that because they badly need our nurses,” Bello said.

“Not only those with contracts are allowed to report to their work abroad but also new applicants. All of them, they are allowed to leave,” he added.

Those covered by the lifting of the deployment ban are nurses, medical workers, doctors, dentists, among others.

Bello reiterated that only 5,000 Filipino workers in the medical sector are allowed to go abroad annually but it is still subject to further assessment

He added that Filipinos are the most sought after medical workers in the world.

Last week, Bello said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has recommended to the President to lift the temporary ban.

The government has implemented a temporary suspension on the deployment of nurses to ensure that the country will have enough medical workers, in case the coronavirus disease situation worsens. (PNA)