There is a huge difference between the data of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases of the Department of Health (DOH) and of the Quezon City's epidemiology unit.
According to August 25 data of the DOH online COVID-19 tracker, Quezon City has already had at least 20,007 cases.
But in the August 25 data sent by the Quezon City government to reporters, which was also validated by the city's Epidemiology Surveillance Unit and the district health office, the city only has 10,170 COVID-19 cases.
Although the DOH noted in its tracker that "some case data are still for validation discrepancies with local data may incur," this still means there is a huge discrepancy of at least 9,000 cases between the data of the national government and the local government.
Recently, Mayor Joy Belmonte hit the DOH for providing an incomplete list of the city's COVID-19 cases.
She added that hundreds of COVID-19 cases registered by the DOH in the city do not actually have addresses provided in their information sheet.
"This means that almost half of the reported cases tagged as QC in the KAYA info system for these days have no addresses and contact numbers, posing a major challenge in contact tracing," Belmonte said, noting these cases may not even be city residents.
“With that, we appeal to your good office as Secretary of Health to set the vision and direction in improving data quality for rapid contact tracing,” Belmonte said in a letter recently sent to DOH Secretary Francisco Duque.