South Cotabato develops COVID-19 contact tracing app

CONTACT TRACING APP The provincial government of South Cotabato promotes on its Facebook page the contact tracing app it developed for use by the some 2,000 establishments in the province. —SOUTH COTABATO FACEBOOK PAGE

KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato, Philippines — South Cotabato has developed a contact tracing app to be used by at least 2,000 establishments in the province in the fight against the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr. said the provincial government’s information technology department developed the South Cotabato COVID-19 Contact Tracing System (SCCCTS) designed “to achieve an accuracy rate of 90 percent” in locating individuals who might have interacted with a patient.

“There is nothing to worry in as far as privacy rights are concerned as this app merely computerizes the logbook system,” Tamayo said at a press briefing over the weekend.

As of 6:55 p.m. on Saturday, South Cotabato had three confirmed COVID-19 cases but all recovered, according to the provincial health office.

Of the suspected COVID-19 cases, 10 are still in the hospital, 52 have been discharged, 48 are outpatients and 15 have died.

A rapid household profile survey had earlier been conducted in different parts of the province to collect the names, addresses and birth dates and other information of the respondents.

Those who enlist will be issued cards to serve as quarantine passes with QR (quick response) codes they can use to enter major establishments in the province. These quarantine passes will be scanned by establishments, such as malls and drugstores equipped with the contact tracing app that can be downloaded on smartphones.

No to Staysafe.phTamayo, who once worked as a systems analyst, explained that data scanned from the quarantine passes would be logged into the server of the SCCCTS. If a person who enters a particular establishment later becomes COVID-19 positive, the system can easily trace the others who went to the establishment at the time the patient was there.

The governor rejected the StaySafe.ph app, which is approved and promoted by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, saying its server might be overwhelmed if “100 million Filipinos” connect to the system.

Tamayo said the province was targeting some 2,000 establishments to connect to the province’s contact tracing app, which would not bring much user traffic to the system.

He warned establishments that would not implement the contact tracing app, saying they would face temporary closure until the COVID-19 pandemic is fully contained.

Of the 11 local government units in South Cotabato, only Koronadal City, the provincial capital, rejected the contact tracing app and instead pushed for StaySafe.ph.

Koronadal Mayor Eliordo Ogena expressed apprehension that the province’s tracking initiative could infringe on the privacy rights of individuals.