MANILA, Philippines — Police personnel will be tapped to trace persons who were possibly exposed to confirmed coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, Malacañang said Wednesday.
In an interview over CNN Philippines, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque cited the strategy of tracing czar and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong in employing police personnel as contact tracers in his jurisdiction.
“We need them as soon as possible but learning from the experience of Baguio, Mayor Magalong did not have to recruit additional personnel. He’s using actually the PNP [Philippine National Police] for contact tracing, which is something that we will also implement here,” Roque said.
“The PNP leadership has signified their conforme to this and they are in the process of training the police officers that will act as contact tracers,” he went on.
While local government units are free to hire additional contact tracers, Roque noted that police who are already employed by the government “can be tapped to do the same chore without additional remuneration.”
The government’s COVID-19 task force co-chairperson and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said over 73,000 contact tracers have been so far hired, still 9,000 short of the 82,000 target.