Covid-19 contact tracing ratio in NCR at 1:6 — DOH

A contact tracing team from Quezon City’s City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) tracks down a possible or suspected Covid-19 patient in Brgy. Baesa. (INQUIRER file photo R/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE)

 MANILA, Philippines — The contact tracing ratio for Covid-19 patients and their close contacts in Metro Manila is still at 1:6, the Department of Health (DOH) said Monday.

 “For every one person, they can trace contacts of up to six persons,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.

Vergeire said the original target ratio for the region was somewhere between 1:27 to 1:36. 

 “But that is very ideal and that is [what] the testing contact tracing czar has mentioned. In their area,  they were able to do that because of strong enforcement,” she added. 

 In August last year, contact tracing czar and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong aired his disappointment over the ratio for contact tracing  in the country, saying the number of close contacts who should be traced per each Covid-19 patient in urban areas should be from 30 to 37, and in rural areas, from 25 to 30. 

But in the same month, Vergeire said this ratio for contact tracing is not yet feasible in Metro Manila and that at least 10 to 20 close contacts who should be traced for every coronavirus disease patient in the region would be sufficient.  

Vergeire pointed out that the contact tracing situation per area is different. 

 “If you look at the different areas, it will be different for each type of region. But basically we still use that as a target, but what is more important for us would be how many hours as soon as you have detected the positive case were you able to trace, and we also measure that,” she added. 

She also noted that local government units across the country still cannot achieve the target of tracing close contacts within 24 hours after the detection of the positive case. 

 According to Vergeire, the Department of the Interior and Local Government has already committed to find more funds to increase the contact tracing capacity in the country.

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