MANILA, Philippines — The country’s seafarer sector, one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, is slowly recovering, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA). We were already deploying almost 30,000 mariners to various destinations,” POEA administrator Bernard Olalia said in a briefing on Friday. POEA data show that around 40,000 seafarers were employed in various foreign vessels before the pandemic hit. He assured stakeholders that there are efforts to meet the vaccine preference of the seafaring industry. “As much as possible, we want to meet the vaccine preference so that they will not have a problem.

Source: Philippine Star June 26, 2021 15:56 UTC