BY ARNEL G. MAGDIRILA, MD
CORONAVIRUS disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients must be provided with the best possible health care, understanding and protection from discrimination or persecution for they are also victims.
Under the Data Privacy Law, personal information about a Covid-19 patient should not be made public.
This makes contact tracing more difficult or next to impossible especially when the patient was in close contact with a person who is asymptomatic or when the patient was not aware that he or she had been in contact with another person who was infected with the virus.
This scenario will surely hasten the spread of the dreaded disease to an exponential rate.
One of the senators said it would be a heroic act for a Covid-19 patient to voluntarily disclose his/her information.
True enough it is a heroic act because that person infected with the virus will be saving many people from the disease.
I strongly agree that Covid-19 positive patients should be encouraged to voluntarily disclose that they have been infected, including their whereabouts in the previous 14 days.
The reasons are: 1. Persons who may have been in contact with the infected person will voluntarily subject himself/herself to Covid-19 testing and quarantine procedures, 2. Contact tracing will be easier and faster.
Keep safe everyone and follow health protocols.