CEBU CITY –– Cebu will go digital in its fight against coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia has issued Executive Order 5-P requiring all persons under monitoring (PUMs) to download the Cebu-developed “WeTrace” app on their mobile phones.
Garcia said the WeTrace app would trace and monitor persons living in Cebu, who have Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), influenza-like illness, or have been classified as persons under monitoring (PUMs) or those symptomatic of the COVID-19.
As of March 30, Cebu province has recorded 13 cases of SARI, 192 cases of influenza-like illness, and 9,111 people classified as PUM.
Garcia said in an interview that the authorities would be able to monitor if the PUMs stick to their home quarantine, and determine the places they visited, and the people they interacted with.
The Police Regional Office will handle the cloud server for the application, which will cost around P100,000, while the Task Force COVID-19 of the Cebu provincial government will provide the personnel who will man the network.
The app, developed by a team of Cebuano DOST Scholars led by Eddie Ybanez, will be used for free. This means the government does not need to pay the developers.
Garcia’s new Executive Order, however, did not indicate the penalties for the failure of PUMs to download the app.
As of 5 p.m. yesterday, Cebu had a total of 29 COVID-19 cases.
Six patients have recovered.