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A TOTAL of 238,000 contact trackers have been deployed across the country to track and manage the close contacts of people who have tested positive for Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), Department of the Interior and Secretary of Local Government Eduardo Año said on Wednesday, September 9, 2020.
He said that most of them are volunteers from the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
He said the DILG will hire 50,000 more contact trackers, 20,000 of which will be assigned in Luzon and 15,000 each in Visayas and Mindanao.
“While they will be hired by province, they will be deployed within their region because most of the time, a large percentage of Covid-19 cases are from barangays or cities. This is to reinforce the current number of contact trackers, ”Año said in a television interview.
He previously thanked Congress for allocating P5 billion for contact tracing efforts under the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Law (Bayanihan 2).
“The additional funds will allow the government to undertake aggressive contact tracing and active case surveillance and case finding, which is a pillar of the National Action Plan against the pandemic,” he said.
He said hiring more contact trackers will allow the government to comply with the recommendation of the contact tracing czar and Baguio City Mayor Benjie Magalong to target a ratio of 1:37 patients per close contact to cut the transmission of the disease.
Year said the hiring will begin once the Department of Budget Management (DBM) releases the funds.
Malacañang has not yet announced whether President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Bayanihan 2 law. (SunStar Philippines)
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