Northern Samar to appeal Alert Level 4 classification

MANILA, Philippines — The provincial government of Northern Samar will appeal the imposition of Alert Level 4 in the province, which its health officer describes as “adding insult to the injury.”

Northern Samar provincial health officer Dr. Ninfa Caparroso-Kam said the current situation in the province does not match the metrics for Alert Level 4, the second highest in the country’s COVID-19 alert level system.

Kam said the provincial council of Northern Samar held a meeting on Friday and consulted their governor about the alert level status.

“Iyon ang napagkasunduan na i-a-attach namin ang aming actual statistics and we are going to appeal through a resolution of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan to the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) para ma re-classify ang aming probinsya to [Alert] Level 3 just like before and like most of the provinces in the region,” she said at the Laging Handa public briefing.

(That’s what we have agreed upon. We will present our actual statistics and appeal through a resolution to the IATF the reclassification of our province to Alert Level 3 just like before and like most of the provinces in the region.)

According to Kam, the average daily attack rate (ADAR) of COVID-19 in the province is currently at 3.25, far from the threshold of seven. ADAR is the average number of new cases per day per 100,000 individuals.

Kam said the higher reported hospital bed utilization in the province might have triggered the IATF to place the province under Alert Level 4.

She, however, said they have included the bed utilization in isolation facilities in the data.

“Dito siguro kami nagkamali ng data na pinadala dahil ang intindi ng aming ibang health workers, dapat isama ang nasa isolation facility. ‘Yung nasa isolation facility, these are our health workers na nagkaroon ng mild symptoms kaya nandoon sila sa isolation,” she explained.

(Maybe this is where we made a mistake with the data sent. Some of our health workers thought we should include the isolation facilities. Those in our isolation facilities are health workers who experienced mild symptoms.)

“So akala nila na dapat ibilang ito, i-include ito sa aming count sa bed tracker. Unfortunately, naisama ito kaya I guess ito ang pinagbasehan ng IATF para ilagay kami sa Alert Level 4,” she added.

(They thought we should include them in the bed tracker. I guess this was the basis of the IATF to place the province under Alert Level 4.)

Kam said the imposition of Alert Level 4 is affecting the economy in the province.

“Pero sana man lang vinalidate muna ito ng IATF before kami inislap ng Alert Level 4 kasi it is affecting our economy. Sabi ko nga, that’s adding insult to injury,” she added.

(But the IATF should have validated this before slapping us with Alert Level 4, because it is affecting our economy. That is adding insult to injury.)

Northern Samar, along with Kalinga, Ifugao, and Mountain Province were placed under Alert Level 4 from January 21 to 31, 2022.

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