Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan meets with heads to discuss the putting of the city under Alert Level 3 and to appeal to the IATF that the encoder made a mistake in encoding the COVID-19 cases in the city. | Futch Anthony Inso
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Philippines — The Lapu-Lapu City government has made an appeal to the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) not to place the city under alert level 3.
The city, along with 9 cities in the country, was first recommended by the IATF to be placed to alert level 3 starting on Sunday, January 9, 2021, due to an increase of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
It was reported that the city hospital’s critical care utilization for COVID-19 patients was already in full capacity.
Lawyer Misaellee Tejano, executive secretary of Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan, however, explained that their encoder had made a mistake in filling up the Department of Health (DOH)’s Collect Tracker.
“So base sa amoang initial nga meeting kaganiha, ang atong encoder nasayop og encode kay ang suspect ug probable cases, giapil niya ug gideclare ngadto sa DOH Collect Tracker. So it is as if nga tanan namong designated beds for COVID, puno,” Tejano said.
(So based on our initial meeting earlier, our encoder made a mistake in encoding because the encoder included the suspect and probable cases, the encoder declared this at the DOH Collect Tracker. So it is as if that alll our designated beds for COVID, are full.)
Tejano clarified that for the past two weeks, hospitals within the city had no longer had COVID-19 positive patients admitted.
She also revealed that the mistake in the encoding of data had already been happening since 2020.
“Since last year sige gyud og tawag ang among attention on the critical care utilization in the city, and we’ve always been telling them nga gamay ra man gud among hospital sa Lapu-lapu City, tulo ra kabuok. Pila ra man pod among total beds compared to the total population. But now we know nga duna diay sayop on how we declare our data,” she added.
(Since last year, our attention have been called on the critical care utilization in the city, and we’ve always been telling them that we only have three hospitals in Lapu-Lapu City. And there are only a few beds compared to the total population. But now we know tha there is a mistake on how we declare our data.)
Aside from this, the encoder has not also undergone training for the work that was assigned to her.
The data that she submitted was also not reviewed by her superior in the Lapu-Lapu City Hospital.
The letter-of-appeal that they will be submitting to IATF-MEID, will also be attached with the affidavit from the encoder and certification from the hospital that they do not have any COVID-19 positive patients in the hospital that was admitted in the past two weeks.
Tejano is hoping that the IATF-MEID will consider their appeal and will no longer place the city to alert level 3.
The encoder, Tejano said, would be investigated and would undergo due process.
Tejano, however, did not give her comment on the possible sanction that the encoder would face.
Chan, for his part, said that he would just wait for the result of the investigation.
“Negligence gyud ni niya kay supposedly before niya i-submit, iya unta ning ipa-review sa iyang chief, or doctors, or head niya. Dili kay mo-deretso lang og hatag sa data nga dili insakto,” Chan said.
(This is negligence because supposedly before the data are submitted, the encoder should have these reviewed by the chief, or doctors or the encoder’s head. The encoder should not have submitted it directly and give the wrong data.)
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