Pasig City has adopted an ordinance passed by Manila City which penalizes any act of discrimination against patients screened for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), healthcare workers, volunteers, and other frontliners amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto posted a copy of the ordinance in his Twitter account, saying the Pasig City government has adopted the “Anti-COVID-19 Discrimination Ordinance of 2020” (Ordinance No. 8624) signed by Manila Mayor Isko Moreno on April 2, 2020.
Pasig prohibits anyone from “committing any act which causes stigma, disgrace, shame, humiliation, harassment.”
Under “Anti-Discrimination Due to Infectious Diseases Ordinance series of 2020,” Pasig prohibits anyone from “committing any act which causes stigma, disgrace, shame, humiliation, harassment” amid government efforts and emergency response to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19.
Under the ordinance, anyone is not allowed to discriminate “a person infected, under investigation or monitoring due to infectious diseases or emerging and re-emerging infectious disease.”
The city ordinance also punishes anyone who discriminates against “public and private doctors, nurses, health workers, emergency personnel, volunteers, service workers who are assigned to hospitals.”
“Covers all forms of discrimination, including on FB. Applies to all COVID-related cases (positive or not) & frontliners,” Sotto said.