News Roundup 11 January 2022
Jan 11, 2022 • 5 min Read
COVID-19 hits 28,007 more in PH; active cases soar to 181,016 | INQUIRER.NET – Confirmed coronavirus cases nationwide reached 3,026,473 as the Department of Health (DOH) reported Tuesday the infection of 28,007 more people, increasing active COVID-19 cases to 181,016. The recorded 28,007 new COVID-19 cases are lower than the 33,169 fresh cases reported on Monday, but it was gathered from a lower number of tests. The DOH reported on Tuesday a positivity rate of 44.5 percent out of 58,409 individuals who got tested for coronavirus on Sunday, January 9. The 46 percent positivity rate reported on Monday, however, was from 73,234 tests conducted on Saturday, January 8. According to the health agency, 99 percent of the 28,007 new COVID-19 cases occurred in the last 14 days, and that the top regions with the most cases in the last two weeks were Metro Manila, which recorded 15,256 fresh infections (55 percent); Calabarzon with 5,861 (21 percent); and Central Luzon with 3,064 (11 percent) new cases. The DOH also reported on Tuesday the recovery of 4,471 coronavirus patients and the death of 219 more. With these, total recoveries and deaths stood at 2,792,946 and 52,511, respectively, as of the January 11 report. Of the current 181,016 active cases, the government said three percent were asymptomatic, 94 percent were mild, 1.58 percent were moderate, 0.80 percent were severe, and 0.16 were critical. As for the hospital bed utilization rate nationwide, the DOH said 41 percent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, 44 percent of isolation beds, and 41 percent of COVID-19 ward beds have been occupied. In Metro Manila, 54 percent of ICU beds, 60 percent of isolation beds, and 64 percent of ward beds were in use, it added.
Fact check: Robredo’s Bayanihan E-Konsulta does not gather voter data | PHILSTAR.COM – Vice President Leni Robredo shut down disinformation circulating on social media that her office’s free teleconsultation service, Bayanihan E-Konsulta, is gathering voter’s information.
CLAIM: Bayanihan E-Konsulta supposedly collects personal information of voters, including their precinct number.
RATING: This is false.
FACTS:
What the posts said
Social media account “Francis Clairvaux” posted over the weekend on Facebook warning that the teleconsultation service of a certain “Madumb” “is just gathering personal information [of] voters.” This was shared on Twitter by user @BosyoJ, who claimed that the teleconsultation service also asks for precinct numbers. “Madumb” is an insult used by critics of the vice president to refer to her.
What the posts left out
In a briefing Tuesday, Robredo said her office’s teleconsultation service only collects pertinent information such as address, contact number, symptoms and medical records from callers. Such information will be used by doctors to give prescriptions. “‘Yung precinct number, hindi ‘yun tinatanong kasi hindi naman ‘yun relevant data,” Robredo said. (We don’t ask for their precinct number because that’s not relevant.) “Pag may nagre-register nga sa amin, hindi naman namin tinatanong kung ano ‘yung political affiliation. Hindi naman namin tinatanong kung sino ba ‘yung iboboto nila sa susunod na eleksyon,” she added. (We don’t ask those who register to avail our service about their political affiliation. We don’t ask about the candidates they will vote for in the elections.) People who have used the Bayanihan E-Konsulta also testified online that they were not asked for other information, like their precinct number.
Essential context
Robredo said it is unfair that her office’s initiative, which has provided assistance to thousands of COVID-19 patients and has tapped the service of volunteer doctors and non-medical personnel, is being discredited through disinformation. “Siguro nararamdaman nila na nakakatulong talaga ‘yung Bayanihan E-Konsulta so gusto nilang i-discredit. ‘Yung sa akin lang, gawa sila ng mas magandang programa,” the vice president said. (Maybe they’re feeling that Bayanihan E-Konsulta has been helping, so they want to discredit it. For me, they should just put up a program that is better.) The teleconsultation service was launched on April 2021, months before she declared her intention to run for president in the 2022 polls. The program is feeling the impact of the fresh COVID-19 surge, fueled by Omicron variant. Robredo said they decided to put a cap of 400 patients a day for consulations as volunteers are also getting sick. “So talagang stretched masyado ‘yung tao natin, ayaw naman natin na ‘yung nagre-register umaasang maaasikaso tapos naghihintay ng matagal, hindi naasikaso,” she said. (We really are stretched and we don’t want to make people register and make them wait for a long time without attending to them) Robredo, the de facto leader of the opposition, has been the target of disinformation by accounts supportive of the Duterte administration and her political rival, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., on social media. Posts claiming that the Commission on Elections had disqualified Robredo from the May polls, that the vice president had photos of herself selling fish, and that her supporters violated health protocols at a rally have circulated on social media. These are not true.
De Lima seeks probe into Fort Ilocandia raid | Manila Bulletin – Opposition Senator Leila de Lima is now seeking a Senate investigation into the reported raid conducted in Fort Ilocandia in Laoag, Ilocos Norte over alleged illegal online gambling activities within the resort hotel. De Lima said it is imperative for the Senate to probe into the continued operation of illegal online gambling activities in the country and hold the perpetrators accountable under existing laws. The senator made the call following the reported raid conducted by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) at Fort Ilocandia last Dec. 20, 2021 for violation of the provisions of the Cybercriime Prevention Act of 2012. “There is an urgent need to address the continued proliferation of illegal gambling activities in the country and expeditiously implement measures to safeguard and put an end in making the country a hub of illegal online activities that breach our existing laws,” De Lima said. De Lima filed the Proposed Senate Resolution asking the Senate to conduct a probe on the controversy but the document has yet to be numbered. The Senate is currently under lockdown from January 10 to January 14 for disinfection purposes due to a number of employees having tested positive for COVID-19. De Lima noted that at the time of the raid, the NBI was implementing a cyber warrant for violation of Section 4(b) (2) of the Cybercrime Law or computer-related fraud which “very dubiously yielded no arrest despite a large number of gadgets used for illegal activities having been seized.
