OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFW) are exempted from the reported Covid-19 vaccine brands preference in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Citing the report from Labor Attache Fidel Macalayug, Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the policy does not cover OFWs, who remain in demand in KSA.
“The new policy of Saudi only covers foreign travelers, excluding OFWs,” Bello said in an online press briefing on Wednesday. He said the Saudi government may have implemented the policy in consideration of the still limited number of available Covid-19 vaccines in the country.
DOLE issued the clarification after it was reported that KSA and European member countries will not allow entry for travelers who got Covid-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical firms such as Sinovac-BioNTech.
Currently, Bello said they have yet to get any report of countries that restricted the entry of OFWs simply because the Covid-19 vaccines they got were not “preferred” in the host country.
During the last Labor Day, DOLE encouraged economic frontliners including OFWs to use the available brands of vaccines secured by the government.
Among the vaccine brands being used by the government are those from Sinovac-BioNtech, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech, and the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
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