Business establishments in QC now required to use KyusiPass

MANILA, Philippines — Business establishments in Quezon City are now required to use the KyusiPass digital contact tracing app for their employees and consumers to help strengthen the city’s contact-tracing capacity for COVID-19 patients, Mayor Joy Belmonte said Sunday.

KyusiPass, a contact tracing app powered by SafePass, can help the local government unit keep track of visitors in every establishment within its jurisdiction, Belmonte said.

“As far as practicable, all business establishments in QC must use our KyusiPass app to make contact tracing easier and faster for early detection of the virus,” the mayor said in a statement.

Belmonte said this directive is included in the revised general community quarantine (GCQ) guidelines in the city in relation to latest issuances by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Department of Trade and Industry.

Under the latest guidelines, Belmonte also ordered business owners to secure a dedicated QR code per establishment from the Business Permits and Licensing Department to tag its location.

“For clarity, a lessee inside a larger establishment, like individual stores inside malls, should have its own contact tracing log,” she explained.

She added that establishments relying on manual contact tracing must encourage their customers to bring their own pen for logging their name, address, and contact number.

Digital copies of these logs should be available to the City Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance Unit should contact tracing be necessary, according to the mayor.

Meanwhile, Belmonte also ordered that indoor cinemas, video and game arcades and theme parks and funfairs in the city must remain closed pending evaluation of the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the city.

Time-based restriction on liquor sale is now lifted, but drinking outdoors or in sidewalks remains prohibited, according to the mayor.

Belmonte further said that the Department of Public Order and Safety will deploy around 3,000 volunteers under the Barangay Disiplina Brigade program throughout the city to strictly enforce all COVID-19 related ordinances.

Based on the latest guidelines signed by the mayor, only persons aged 15 to 65 will be allowed to go out of their homes. Those not in the age bracket may leave their residences only for “indispensable” reasons.

Passengers in public utility vehicles should be one seat apart and wakes at home also remain strictly prohibited under the revised set of rules.

Meanwhile, open-air parks may operate at the discretion of their management for non-contact activities such as jogging, badminton and others provided health and safety protocols are observed.

Beerhouses, nightclubs, videoke or KTV bars, and daycare centers or playhouses will remain closed, the mayor added.

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JE