EDITORIAL - Public disclosure

In this democratic country, debate has raged on whether people who test positive for coronavirus disease 2019 or suspected of infection should disclose their condition and be publicly identified. The government ended the debate over the weekend, by ordering the public identification of confirmed COVID-19 cases.

The move is meant to improve contact tracing and prevent further coronavirus contagion, according to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases. The IATF also warned that sanctions would be imposed on persons who conceal their infection.

The order reversed the original IATF policy of getting the consent of an infected person first before public identification. This was in line with privacy laws particularly regarding a person’s health. The privacy policies, however, have compounded the difficulty of contact tracing. In certain cases, bereaved families have lamented that their relatives who are doctors died of the disease because patients lied about COVID infection.

There have been calls from various sectors for the public disclosure of COVID cases, so that people may know if they might have contracted the virus. The IATF order addresses this.

At the same time, however, public identification could open not only COVID patients but also their relatives and household members to discrimination, harassment and even violent attacks. This fear of contagion has also fueled attacks on health professionals, whose work puts them at high risk of coronavirus infection.

Privacy watchdogs have warned against the public identification of COVID cases. The government has brushed aside the warning in the name of public health in these extraordinary times. In ordering the public disclosure of the identities of patients, the government must put in place measures to protect COVID cases as well as their households from discrimination and harassment.