Solon urges public disclosure of Covid-19 patients’ identities

He noted that those who are considered as patients under investigation (PUIs) and persons under monitoring (PUMs) should also be included. (Pexels photo)

MANILA – A lawmaker at the House of Representatives on Wednesday recommended the public disclosure of the identities of patients with coronavirus disease (Covid-19) to strengthen the country’s fight against the pandemic.

Davao del Norte Rep. Alan Dujali made the proposal through a letter to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease as it would help boost the ongoing Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine.

Dujali said his recommendation aims to create an “effective deterrent” to such persons from violating the quarantine measure and hospital protocols and to strengthen the mandatory reporting provided under Republic Act 11332.

“While I believe that the quarantine measures have, so far, been effective in addressing our current public health concern, it is my humble recommendation that we further strengthen it by implementing strategies aimed at informing the public, on a regular basis of the identities of the persons who have already been tested positive for the virus, as well as of those who have a probable chance of having contracted it,” Dujali said in his letter.

He noted that those who are considered as patients under investigation (PUIs) and persons under monitoring (PUMs) should also be included.

Dujali said the government should implement a regular public disclosure of people stricken with the disease as well as PUIs and PUMs through the Department of Health (DOH) and its authorized counterparts to prevent a rise in coronavirus cases.

“As we have seen in the media, there are many different personalities who have been tested positive with the virus, and yet have voluntarily publicly disclosed such fact,” he said.

“If we go further by allowing our government to publicly disclose the identities of persons infected with the virus, the PUIs and PUMs, I believe we can make a more positive impact towards effectively slowing down the spread of the virus,” he added.

Dujali argued that public disclosure of information through an authorized entity such as the health department is legal since RA 11332 provides a clear exception to Republic Act 10173, also known as the Data Privacy Law on the accessibility of data.

“Dissemination of such information to the public by the DOH and its local counterparts is not prohibited, yet actually mandated, so long as they are gathered from the official disease surveillance and response systems that are already built-in place,” he said.

He cited that one of the cornerstones of RA 11332 is mandatory reporting which is the obligatory reporting of a condition to local or state health authorities, as required for notifiable diseases, epidemics or public health events of public health concern.

“Therefore, given that our country already has a legal framework that provides a legal basis for the public disclosure of identities of persons infected with the coronavirus, as well as the PUIs and PUMs, the only thing that remains for us to do is to implement it,” he said.

The DOH on Wednesday reported 227 new cases of Covid-19, bringing the total number of cases to 2,311 from 2,084 on Tuesday.

There is now a total of 50 recoveries after one new treated patient — a 59-year-old Filipino male from Taguig City — was reported on Wednesday.