Adrian Sedillo, executive director of the Negros Oriental provincial Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases. (Photo courtesy of Capitol PIO)
DUMAGUETE CITY – The Negros Oriental Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) wants the police and other law enforcement authorities to investigate the circulation of information that revealed the identities of seven alleged positive coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients in the province.
Provincial IATF executive director Adrian Sedillo, in an interview, said a resolution was passed during a full-body meeting of the task force Monday morning asking the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other law enforcement agencies to track down the source of such information.
Granting that the unofficial and unverified report is true, the revelation of the names of the supposedly confirmed Covid-19 patients in the province is a gross violation of protocols being followed by the government in the reporting of coronavirus cases, including non-disclosure of personal information, Sedillo said.
The said information was being passed on via text, private messaging, and even reportedly publicly posted on Facebook, containing the names, age, and addresses of the seven individuals, reports reaching the IATF said.
“Publishing their names is adding insult to injury and just imagine the stigma it can create,” he said.
Asked whether the seven persons in that message were among the nine new positive Covid-19 cases that the IATF-EID had announced today in a press briefing, Sedillo declined to comment.
“As to the identity of the nine cases, we are guided by the protocols of DOH not to reveal the personal information of those who have contracted Covid-19,” he said.
He added they do not recognize the message in question as true or correct, considering that it does not come from an authorized agency and the source of information is not known.
“The IATF will not dignify the information, and we can only say that we have nine new positive cases (of Covid-19),” he said.
The text message appeared to be sent allegedly from one PNP office to another and quoted a report purportedly from the Department of Health in Region 7 (DOH-7), which included the number of new Covid-19 cases, both positive and negative, in Cebu, Cebu province, and Negros Oriental.
Sedillo said it is now up to the PNP to investigate how and where this information had originated.
The IATF-EID here has repeatedly warned the public against being purveyors of “fake news” or false information as legal action could be filed against them, based on national guidelines in relation to the Covid-19, he said.
He appealed to the media as well as to the public to contact the authorized agencies or individuals for clarification and to stop the spread of unverified information. (PNA)
