Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Friday assured the public of an “aggressive contact tracing” to help keep new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreaks under control after Congress approved the request of the Department of the Interior and the Local Government (DILG) for a P5-billion fund for the hiring of people who will be equipped to do the job.
“This is really good news because we can now hire a maximum of 50,000 more contact tracers to meet the WHO (World Health Organization) recommended ratio of one contact tracer for every 800 people,” Año said in a statement.
The additional manpower would supplement the existing 91,000 contact tracers from various local government units in the country, he added.
Año said the hiring of 50,000 contact tracers would now allow the government to meet the recommendations of Baguio City Mayor and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong of 1:37 patient to close contacts ratio.
Magalong earlier said that Metro Manila only has a 1:5 patient to close contacts ratio.
“We will now be able to significantly increase the number of contact tracers to meet the 1:37 ratio target recommended by Mayor Magalong, which has been effective in Baguio and in Cebu City,” Año said.
The DILG, Año said, would recruit additional contact tracers as soon as the funds are released to them by the Department of Budget and Management.
He said that “aggressive contact, active community involvement, and strict quarantine enforcement are the priorities now of his department.”
Interior Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the additional contact tracers would be trained by the DILG’s Local Government Academy in using the “cognitive interviewing technique,” which is similar to the questioning technique used by the police to retrieve information about a crime from eyewitnesses and victims.
“We will ensure that all those hired will be trained,” he said, adding that “the biggest game-changer in Cebu City is the aggressive contact tracing.”
Cebu was earlier placed under the strictest lockdown following the rising number of COVID-19 cases.