FILE PHOTO: A healthcare worker takes blood sample from a passenger at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing center in Manila, Philippines. MANILA: The Philippines' president has eased an overseas travel ban on Filipino nurses and other medical workers to allow more to take jobs abroad, his spokesman said on Monday , as his government believes it has its coronavirus outbreak under control., Reuters reported last week.
Healthcare workers from the Philippines are on the front lines of the pandemic at hospitals in the United States, Europe and the Middle East as well as at home. Duterte's government in April barred nurses, doctors and other medical workers from leaving, saying they were needed to fight the coronavirus crisis in the Philippines, which is still tackling its first wave of infections.
The country has the highest number of recorded coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia with 286,743 cases. Its 4,984 deaths are second only to Indonesia."We know the enemy and we know how to fight the enemy through isolation, tracing and treatment," Roque added.