Filtered By: Topstories
News

Galvez: Allowing health workers to work abroad could lead to 'morale problem'


Allowing healthcare workers to go and work abroad could result in a morale problem, according to the chief implementer of the government's response against COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday.

Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. defended the decision of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to maintain the overseas deployment ban on health workers amid the pandemic.

He said COVID-19 is a long fight; therefore there is a need to preserve the strength of medical frontliners in the country.

"'Yung pinakaimportanteng resources ngayon po sa fight natin sa COVID is 'yung hospital administration at saka po 'yung ating health care workers. We need to preserve them para po masustain po natin 'yung fight natin," Galvez said at a Palace briefing.

"If we will allow our healthcare workers to go abroad, there will be a morale problem. War is a matter of morale so therefore kailangan pong ireconsolidate ang ating health workers," he added.

"We have to preserve them to serve our country. This is our heroic duty po as doctors and nurses, to serve our country, to serve our people, to serve our humanity," Galvez said.

Malacañang has said the deployment ban was implemented to ensure the safety of Filipino healthcare workers amid the health crisis.

So far, the Philippines has 164,474 COVID-19 infections, with 112,759 recoveries and 2,681 deaths.—AOL, GMA News