THE Department of Health (DOH) Davao said some of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) positive patients are hesitant to disclose people they had close contact with, thus, mandatory public disclosure of their identities would help boost contact tracing effort.
During a virtual presser on Monday, DOH-Davao assistant director Dr. Lenny Joy Rivera said they have yet to receive the guidelines coming from the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) on data sharing of patient’s information.
Rivera said contact tracing has been a challenge for their surveillance team as some patients are not cooperative in providing details of the people they interacted with. She said truthful information will help hasten in locating people who might have been exposed with the virus or have already contracted it.
“Some of the contacts kasi hindi talaga nagco-cooperate sa atin. Some of them are not giving the exact details even ang patient mismo hindi nagbibigay nong mga client nila kung nag wo-work sila before, hindi nila binibigay ‘yong mga (names ng) clients na nakahalubilo nila,” she said.
This, she said, makes contact tracing a challenge for them.
“Kasi tatawagan sila then they are not disclosing any information kung sino ang nakausap nila even mga kasama nila sa bahay. Kahit sa amin even nagpapakilala kami na from DOH ganito ang pangalan, ayaw parin ibigay yong mga detalye,” Rivera said.
IATF earlier announced that they decided to adopt the mandatory public disclosure of personal information of Covid-19 patients to enhance the contact tracing efforts of the government. They later clarified that it doesn’t necessarily mean that the data will be fed to the public but rather give the “accurate and honest information” to DOH.
The health department would serve as the repository of the information. It will be responsible for providing and sharing the data with local governments and law enforcement agencies that would help in tracing people who are exposed to an infected person while being mindful of the provisions of the Data Privacy Act.
“Makakatulong siya [mandatory disclosure of patient’s information] kasi madali nating ma-identify kung sino yong mga nakakasama niya. Currently kasi, even the contact tracing team are calling relatives, friends, na nagsabi na kasama nila, ayaw pumunta sa mga health centers, ayaw mga disclose ng mga pangalan,” she added.
Under the Republic Act 11332 or the Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act, non-cooperation of the person or entities identified as having the notifiable disease, or affected by the health event of public concern is prohibited.
It also states that disclosure of confidential information will not be considered a violation of this Act if the disclosure was made to comply with a legal order issued by a court of law with competent jurisdiction.
As of April 13, the region has reported a total of 90 confirmed cases with 15 deaths. Contact tracing is still ongoing to locate those who had close contact with Covid-19 patients.