ILOILO CITY—Iloilo City’s registration for the contact-tracing system of the coronavirus disease was suspended after two days of its implementation due to an overwhelming number of residents attempting to register.
Registration on the Uswag Tracer website (uswagtracer.com) remains suspended as of Friday with a notice that the verification is being conducted for those who have registered.
Francis Cruz, chief of the city government’s Information Technology Services Division, said they received more than 38,000 applications in just two days.
“We are in the process of verifying the applications based on the government-issued identification card submitted by email,” he told the Inquirer.
Residents, workers and visitors of the city age 6 years old and above will be required to present digital or printed unique quick-response (QR) codes for scanning before entering offices and business establishments in the city.
The QR codes are intended to systematize and hasten contract-tracing efforts on persons infected with COVID-19.
Easy to trace
Through the system, health authorities can easily trace an infected person and those he or she may have gotten in contact with or been in close proximity to at a particular time and location.
The system is also intended to do away with or minimize manual and time-consuming registration per establishment or office.
The QR codes, along with a manual, will be emailed to those who have successfully registered at the website.
The system was earlier implemented at the Iloilo City Hall covering all city government employees.
The citywide implementation of the QR code is supposed to be mandatory starting next month but Cruz said this would most likely be moved pending the completion of the registration and for the passing of a city ordinance mandating the QR code requirement.
He said they will first accept and process the registration of employees of businesses next week, followed by offices. Individual registration will resume in seven to 10 days.