DILG needs over 80K contact tracers for expanded contact tracing efforts

MANILA  Philippines — Four months since the first coronavirus case was discovered in February, the Department of the Interior and Local Government on Thursday sought to expand its contact tracing capabilities by targeting to hire 82,537 contact tracers.

They will form part of local contact tracing teams for local government units, to boost the government’s efforts to defeat the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

In a statement, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said that the government needs to train and hire contact tracers “who will break the chains of transmission of COVID-19 by identifying those who may have been exposed to the virus and monitoring them daily for 14 days.”

Año added that the proposal of the DILG has already been submitted to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) for the training and hiring of contact tracers.

However, Año noted that while over 80,000 contact tracers are needed, the DILG proposed to the IATF-MEID that only 50,000 be hired since LGUs continue to increase their number of contact tracers, while there are also volunteers from the private sector.

The DILG secretary said he expects the approval of the proposal soon and the hiring of additional contact tracers by next month.

Under the DILG proposal, those who wish to be contact tracers should preferably hold a bachelor’s degree either on allied medical courses, other health-related courses, or criminology.

Those who have completed at least two years of college education, either in medical or criminology-related courses, are second priority, the DILG said, adding that applicants shall preferably have one-year relevant experience and four years of relevant training.

Currently, the DILG said that there are 52,463 contact tracers nationwide who are part of 3,347 local contact tracing teams.

“Per the World Health Organization, the ideal contact tracer to population ratio is 1:800 so to fully cover 108 million Filipinos, we actually need a total of 135,000 contact tracers,” Año said.

Meanwhile, DILG Undersecretary for Peace and Order Bernardo Florece Jr. said that a total of 87,092 out of 94,534 contacts or 92.13 percent have already been traced as of June 15 by local contact tracers.

Currently, the Philippines has 27,799 COVID-19 cases, with 7,090 recoveries and 1,116 deaths.

EDV