Chronic lack of nurses

Give us our dues: Health workers staging a protest to ask the government for hazard pay and benefits outside the Department of Health office in Manila. — AFP

Exhausted nurses here are struggling to care for patients as colleagues contract Covid-19 or quit a profession that was dangerously understaffed even before the pandemic.

The country is enduring a record rise in infections, fuelled by the Delta variant, with the health department reporting a nursing shortfall of more than 100,000 – forcing those left to work long hours for little pay on often precarious short-term contracts.