The Department of Health (DOH) is coordinating with the Department of Information Communications Technology (DICT) to strengthen the capacity of the department’s COVID-19 information management digital platform COVID KAYA.
According to the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, the COVID KAYA platform experienced technical glitches due to a failed server from Sep. 23 to Sep. 26. With this, some data from the COVID Document Repository System (CDRS) has been rejected.
The department also faced the challenge of updating the data from the COVID KAYA, especially the line list generation or the number of reported COVID-19 cases.
“While fixes are being done, we really need to find alternative options and solutions para din tuloy-tuloy naman ‘yung pagbibigay natin ng datos at that for sure when we are reporting sigurado tayo na ito talaga yung datos na dapat mareport natin,” Dr. Alethea de Guzman of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau said.
To avoid further downtime in the said digital platform, the DOH tapped DICT for assistance.
“The DICT is trying to identify what would be the immediate fixes para lumaki yung server capacity natin and longer term more sustainable fixes para we don’t experience downtime frequently.”
In relation to this, the department said, despite the technical issues, they still have access to the CDRS and other matters needed for the decision-making regarding the Alert Level System.
“Dito naman sa alert level system ang metrics na ginamit natin ay ‘yung dami ng kaso at ‘yung health care utilization. It had no impact in the assessment or in the computation of metrics that we use in assessing kung ano yung alert level classification for NCR.”
Meanwhile, the DOH also asked the DICT to include those who test positive for COVID-19 in the COVID KAYA data.
The department emphasized that they will continue to improve their process to produce the right data and information for the public regarding the country’s COVID-19 cases.
Report from Kenneth Paciente/NGS-rir
