ON Tuesday, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año created a near-panic among the public with an announcement that “state security forces” would soon be deployed in a house-to-house search for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) patients with no or mild symptoms who are under home quarantine in order to transfer them to isolation facilities managed by the government. Although there is some rational merit to the idea, the way Año presented it leaves far too many unanswered questions to give us confidence it can be carried out productively and with due respect to citizens’ rights.

The decision evidently stems from a disagreement within the government over whether or not “home quarantine” — allowing those infected with the novel coronavirus but are asymptomatic or have only a mild illness to isolate themselves in their homes — is safe. On Monday, the Department of Health issued a statement saying home quarantine was appropriate, provided, of course, that the patients observe the isolation protocols. But the position of the larger Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) is that it is not, hence the announcement by Secretary Año.

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