MANILA, Philippines — Northern Samar will appeal the decision of the pandemic task force to place the province under the more restrictive alert level 4 until the end of the month, according to its provincial health officer. Northern Samar was one of four provinces escalated to alert level 4 because their health-care utilization rate exceeded 70 percent. Provincial Health Officer Ninfa Caparroso-Kam, however, said its COVID-19 numbers were not considered critical. She said case doubling time was just at 84 to 100—far from exceeding 200, which is what would be considered critical. But Caparroso-Kam said the province had made an error in the data it submitted on hospital bed utilization, which could have been why the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases placed it on alert level 4. —Leila B. Salaverria