British Ambassador to the Philippines Daniel Pruce on Wednesday said they have no plans to link the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) vaccines to the deployment of Filipino health care workers in the United Kingdom.
This was in response to an earlier proposal made by Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III offering Germany and the UK of deploying more nurses to those countries in exchange for providing the Philippines with some 600,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
“We’ve got no plans to link the vaccines with those conversations around the recruitment of nurses,” Pruce told reporters during a virtual press briefing.
The British diplomat admitted that the proposal to trade the vaccine for the lifting of the deployment cap for Filipinos health care workers (HCWs) abroad was raised by Bello himself during their last conversation a few weeks ago “in the midst of the number of points that we were also exchanging views on.”
While they understand the basis upon which the Philippines’ offer came given the demands of the pandemic, the British diplomat explained the hiring of Filipino HCWs is being done based on their government’s policy decision in terms of managing the flow of health care professionals.
On the vaccine distribution, Pruce said the UK has made an emphatic commitment that any vaccine excess that it may have in the course of their vaccine deployment plan will be directed through the COVAX facility.
COVAX facility is the mechanism launched by the World Health Organization (WHO), the European Commission and France to ensure that people in all corners of the world will get access to COVID-19 vaccines once they are available, regardless of their wealth.
Early this month, it was announced that the COVAX has allotted the Philippines 10 million vaccine doses, mostly the Astra Zeneca brand, but will be delivered on an installment basis.
Pruce said the COVAX vaccine allocations to countries, including the Philippines, will be done in a “fair and equitable” manner.
“And it will be through COVAX facility that distribution of surplus vaccines through developing countries will be managed in a fair and equitable way,” he said.