The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday, June 7, warned the public against an email circulating among healthcare workers about coronavirus disease (COVID-19) benefit packages, using the email address [email protected].
In an advisory, the Health department said, while there are existing benefit packages for healthcare workers, "DOH will not send individual emails to sign up for these." The DOH said the sender email, [email protected], is not an official email address of DOH nor any of its employees.
It added that the DOH nor the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases "did not send any email urging all healthcare and hospital workers to register to receive a COVID-19 benefit package." The DOH also said that there is no DOH-IATF COVID Task Force National Center for Health as used in the email signoff and that their official website is www.doh.gov.ph.
It said the link attached in the unofficial email (www.doh.gov-org/coronavirus/2019 nCoV/newcases-cities.html) is not recognized by the DOH.
"Be wary of clicking any links from the said email," the DOH said.
The DOH discouraged individuals or groups from creating, perpetrating, or spreading false information regarding the COVID-19 crisis on social media and other platforms.
"We urge the public to be more vigilant against fraudulent emails and to trust only verified information from reputable sources, such as the DOH Facebook page and website," it said.
"The public is also encouraged to report any wrongful information encountered online through the DOH'S KIRA Chatbot which can be accessed through Viber or Messenger," added DOH.