Fewer cases of discrimination with recovered patients noted in Lapu

Lapu-Lapu DRRMO attributes this trend to their information drive

The personnel of Lapu-Lapu’s Disaster Risk Reduction Managment Office (DRRMO) (facing) salute the newly recovered COVID-19 patients (back at camera) of Lapu-Lapu City as they leave the hospital last week to return home. | Contributed photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — There are fewer cases of discrimination against recovered COVID-19 patients in Lapu-Lapu City, and they  are even welcomed when they return to their communities.

Nagiel Bañacia, Lapu-Lapu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (DRRMO) chief, has attributed this development to the his team’s information drive.

Bañacia said that they conducted the information campaign when they received reports about recovered patients being discriminated in their communities.

“At first duna gyud mo ingon apan lahi naman karon diri sa Lapu-Lapu. Lahi ang treatment in a scale of 1 to 10 maybe naay one or two nga gi discriminate, but because we tried our best nga i-explain sa mga tawo nawala ra (their fear) eventually,” said Bañacia, who pointed out that the city now has 38 patients, who recovered from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

He said that the team would usually transport the recovered patients back to their homes, but before leaving these patients, they would make it a point to let the community know that they should not fear these patients anymore.

“We are teaching the people to stop the stigma by the experience from the recovered patients which they share to the public or their community,” Bañacia said.

“We are transitioning into recovery, [recovered patients] they are educating the public how to prevent the spread of the virus, what are we going to do to help those affected, and how they can help their community as well,” he added.

As of this week, the team will be adding three more members in the Tactical Propaganda Team of COVID-19.

Read more: Lapu DRRMO creates team to help in fight against COVID-19

The DRRMO is not only targeting to educate those affected areas but also those isolated areas or slum areas in the city so that these residents will know how to battle the virus, how to act if one is infected, and how they can rise up as a community.

“They helped us in letting the people understand the situation and how it feels like to be treated from the virus and surviving it. Mas maka encourage ni sila. Ang discrimination would only happen kung ang mga tawo less educated (These can encourage people. The discrimination would only happen if the people are less educated about it),” he said.

Bañacia said that now that the city would be expecting more COVID-19 recoveries in the coming days, they would make sure that the recovered patients when they would return back home they would not be treated differently but would be welcomed back with open arms./dbs