Binay hits DOH over slow dissemination of info on COVID-19 cases

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Nancy Binay on Monday criticized the Department of Health’s (DOH) supposedly slow dissemination of information regarding the confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country.

“Parang nangyayari kasi nauuna ‘yung mga Viber groups kaysa dun sa announcement ng DOH,” Binay told health officials in a Senate hearing.

She recalled getting information about a purported confirmed COVID-19 case through the online messaging app.

“Just to share, over the weekend sa social media o sa mga Viber groups nagkalat na ‘yung umiikot na merong eskwelahan sa BGC na parang confirmed na ‘yung isang parent so they had to parang disinfect the school, so parang ako the whole time sinasabi ko: ‘Baka fake news ‘yan kasi wala pa akong naririnig from DOH na may ganung case.’ But pagdating nung gabi, you announced it 10 or 11 o’clock there’s four additional confirmed patients,” the senator said.

“Hindi alam ngayon kung saan ba galing itong apat na ito, at kasama ba doon sa apat na iyon ‘yung kumakalat sa social media or Viber groups,” she added.

She stressed that DOH needs to be more expeditious in its announcement of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

“Parang nawawalan na ng kumpyansa ‘yung public with the way you’re handling the dissemination of (information about the) patients,” she said.

While Binay said she understands that DOH needs to perform a “balancing act” in respecting the privacy of COVID-19 patients and being transparent with the public, she reminded officials that they should make decisions that would benefit everyone.

“Naiintindihan ko ho ‘yung problema ng DOH, ‘yung balancing act between the privacy of the patient and the ano of the public but you know at the end of the day, you are government officials but laging mas mananaig kung ano ‘yung mas nakakabuti sa nakakarami.”

“Katulad nga nito, ang dating parang kayo lang ata ‘yung hindi nakakaalam pero halos lahat doon sa community na iyon alam na nila, alam na nung mga co-parents na confirmed, na may coronavirus pala ‘yung co-parent nila but there was no word from DOH,” she added.

Dr. Gemma Arellano from the DOH’s Emergency Operation Center for COVID-19 said the department is doing everything it can to disseminate accurate information to the public as soon as it can.

“Every day there are new things coming up and we’re trying to keep up with all this new information that we get, like for the case, the four cases, the test was taken in the morning and the results came out in the afternoon, something like that. It was really too fast, every day we try to give out all the information,” Arellano told senators.

She added that DOH has so far dispatched five investigation teams to conduct contact tracing activities.

“We try to identify other confirmed cases and get them out of the community and admit them in a hospital because the first thing that you have to do is to isolate these cases even those asymptomatic, even though we did not know who was positive we actually got them out of the community,” she said.

“Yung intensive communication campaign actually that’s why the secretary has been doing a lot of press briefing every day even twice,” she added.

The Philippines has so far recorded 10 confirmed cases of COVID-19, a respiratory disease caused by a coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses. Coronavirus is a family of viruses, which surfaces have a crown-like appearance. The viruses are named for the spikes on their surfaces.

President Rodrigo Duterte has already declared a state of public health emergency following the recommendation of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.

Duque said the declaration of a state of public health emergency will “facilitate mobilization of resources, ease processes, including procurement of critical logistics and supplies, and intensifying reporting.”

KGA