MANILA -- The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) has joined the government's information dissemination campaign on the 2019-novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease (2019-nCoV ARD) which has claimed more than 800 lives worldwide.
"The NDRRMC is supporting the information campaign led by the DOH (Department of Health) and we are working to ensure that all communications items (regarding nCoV) are factual and accurate," NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Cashean Timbal said.
The government is stepping up its information campaign about the virus outbreak in China that has also affected 24 other countries, including the Philippines, amid misinformation being spread about the deadly disease.
Timbal said in an emergency meeting last week, the NDRRMC expressed its support to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the ongoing actions against the 2019-nCoV ARD.
The NDRRMC would secure the participation of local DRRM councils by cascading infection control initiatives.
Aside from the information dissemination campaign, the agency would also provide assistance on the conduct of contact tracing and field validation, repatriation of overseas Filipinos, coordination with local government units and partners, mobilization of logistics and conduct of bio-chemical interventions, management of quarantine areas, and other tasks.
Apart from coming up with strategies to fight the virus, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said people must have access to accurate information to protect themselves from the virus.
Ghebreyesus said the WHO is also battling the trolls and conspiracy theorists that push misinformation and undermine the outbreak response. (PNA)
