IATF requires all establishments to adopt the Stay Safe contact tracing app

MANILA – The inter-agency working group that leads the country’s fight against COVID-19 requires that all establishments adopt the Stay Safe application and its QR code to consolidate data on who interacted with patients with the new coronavirus, Malacañang said. Friday.

The IATF, which met Thursday, approved the recommendation of the Office of the Cabinet Secretary to “implement the Security Seal Certification Program in addition to StaySafe.ph,” said presidential spokesman Harry Roque.

Requirements to ensure a security seal “include the adoption of the Stay Safe application and the generation of its QR code to be displayed on all entrances,” it said in a statement.

“All establishments, such as government offices, private companies, hotels and commercial establishments and public transport units, are required to adopt the Security Seal,” he added.

The Stay Safe app is free to download and does not require mobile prepaid charging to function, COVID-19 test czar Vince Dizon previously said.

With the app, users can simply snap a photo of QR codes in shopping malls, banks, restaurants, trains and buses, rather than manually filling out contact tracking sheets, he said.

The app will allow authorities to easily notify users if a person they had close contact with at these locations tests positive for the new coronavirus, Dizon said.

StaySafe “will build public confidence to use these facilities and help accelerate the economy,” he told ANC.

The IATF directed the departments of commerce, health, labor, local government, tourism and transportation to issue the joint circular memorandum necessary to detail the requirements of the security seal, Roque said.

The task force previously required agencies and local governments to use the Stay Safe digital contact tracing application.

The new guidelines came after the country’s COVID-19 contact tracing czar, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, coincided with the recent assessment by the World Health Organization that tracing efforts for Philippine contacts were “a little weak”.

“It’s true,” Magalong said at a public briefing, noting that only about 7 contacts are identified for every COVID-19 patient.

Ideally, authorities should find about 37 contacts in urban areas and 30 contacts in rural areas, he said.

The lack of a data encryption system is a “major factor” for contact tracing failures in some local governments, Magalong said.

“They are still manual and arbitrary,” he said. “It’s just a guess, but when you ask him what the contacts are on your Magalong line list, they have nothing to show … There is no system.”

(Completing the contact tracking forms is still manual and arbitrary. It’s just a guess. If you ask them who the contacts are on Magalong’s line list, they can’t show anything.)

The Philippines as of Thursday has more than 435,000 confirmed coronavirus infections.