Usability of the Department of Health Website Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines

Abstract

Following the rise of COVID-19, both facts and misinformation spread rapidly online, making it difficult for the public to distinguish one from the other. Consequently, this resulted in anxiety, confusion, and wrong actions taken (Department of Global Communications 2021). Due to the prevalence of misinformation, there arose a need for a centralized source of accurate information that could be easily accessed online—a role to be fulfilled by the Department of Health (DOH), as the Philippines’ authority on health. Crisis communication is essential for public reassurance and order (Mohamad and Azlan 2020), and people are more likely to trust local health authorities than international bodies, due to the latter having language and cultural barriers (Mohamad et al. 2020).