Liloan Mayor to DOH: Release only verified information

Liloan Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco is urging the Department of Health to release only verified information so as not to cause undue panic. | Contributed photo

CORDOVA, Cebu, Philippines — Mayor Christina Garcia-Frasco of Liloan town, northern Cebu lamented the announcement of the Department of Health (DOH) that a Liloan resident has proven positive to the new variant of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Frasco said in her official statement that the premature statement of the DOH may have caused panic to the residents when in fact, there is no record in Liloan of a patient with the same description revealed by the DOH.

“Upon thorough verification by our Liloan Covid-19 Operations Center, we have no record of a 35-year old male from Liloan testing positive of Covid-19 or of the new Covid variant in the month of January and February 2021,” said the mayor.

DOH Regional Office in Central Visayas (DOH-7) director, Doctor Jaime Bernadas informed the mayor that the patient tagged from Liloan was actually swabbed in Sta. Anna, Manila, and the regional office has no record of the patient in any part of the region.

“The premature release to the public of unverified information with zero coordination with our LGU, is a cause for great concern as it sows unnecessary panic, and calls to question proper case management notwithstanding that our LGU has exhausted all efforts in the past year to protect our people from this pandemic and to not cause further anxiety and stress by releasing information only when the same has been thoroughly investigated and verified,” said Frasco.

Despite this, the Liloan Municipal Government said it will still render assistance to any investigation to be conducted and will await proper coordination from the DOH, which the government said there has been none to date.

“I assure our people in Liloan that while we must all continue to be vigilant and observe health and safety protocols, there is no cause for panic. Our Local Government Unit shall continue all efforts to ensure the health and safety of the public balanced with our programs for economic recovery,” added the mayor.

The DOH-7 already said in the previous statement that the patient placed in his address the town of Liloan despite being swabbed in Manila. The regional office has no idea of his whereabouts yet. /rcg