COVID-19 contact tracing ratio slides down — Magalong

Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong. FILE PHOTO / EV ESPIRITU

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s efficiency ratio for contact tracing slid down from the ratio two months ago, contract czar and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said Saturday.

According to Magalong, only an average of four to five close contacts are currently being traced for every single COVID-19 patient.

“Diyan na lang naglalaro. There was even a time na almost two months ago umabot tayo sa 1:9. Immediately nagslide down kaagad sa 1:5, 1:4. Ibig sabihin for every positive patient, ang na-contact trace lang ay apat,” he said.

(The numbers only range in that ratio. There was a time almost two months ago that out contact tracing ratio reached 1:9. But it immediately slid down to 1:5 or 1:4. That means that for every patient, we only trace four close contacts.)

This means that only four close contacts are being tested for every positive case, said Magalong.

“Ibig sabihin ang testing rate mo kapag ganoon ay napakababa unlike kung ang contract tracing efficiency mo is 1:9, you will be able to cope up with the rate of transmission lalo na sa Delta variant,” he said.

(That means that your testing rate is really low, unlike when your contact tracing efficiency is 1:9 that will enable you to cope up with the rate of transmission especially with the Delta variant.)

Magalong earlier admitted that contact tracing remains the weakest link in the country’s COVID-19 response. He said that contact tracing remains a challenge and that there are still not enough contact tracers due to budgetary constraints.

The country has 130,268 active cases of COVID-19 as of Friday.

EDV