Marikina hiring more contact tracers

MANILA, Philippines — Marikina is hiring 14 additional health workers to expand contact tracing in the city to arrest the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), according to Mayor Marcelino Teodoro.

Each of the 16 barangays in the city, Teodoro said, would have a team of contact tracers composed of members of the City Epidemiological Surveillance Unit, local police and barangay officials.

“We will continue to conduct contact tracing until we reach zero number of cases in Marikina,” he added.

Citing the Department of Health’s COVID-19 statistics, Teodoro said Marikina had a 20 percent attack rate or the proportion of exposed people who contracted the virus.

It was one of the lowest in Metro Manila, thanks to the discipline of residents and the city’s intensive testing and contact tracing program.

“Our rate of contact tracing is for one positive case, we have 30 identified… Because we have a high ratio, 1:30, we speedily contain the spread of the virus,” he added.

“The testing average that they want to achieve on a national level is 400 to 500 tests per day in a locality. But here in Marikina, we have tested 600 to 800 people a day, which is almost double the standard average that we have,” Teodoro said.

—Jodee A. Agoncillo