Palace: Gov’t to hire more contact tracers amid threat of Delta variant

(File Photo) Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque. IMAGE from the PCOO Facebook page

MANILA, Philippines — The government will hire additional contact tracers amid the threat of the Delta variant, which was first detected in India in February, Malacañang said Thursday.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said hiring contact tracers could be part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s discussions with lawmakers about the Bayanihan 2 law and the proposed Bayanihan 3.

“Naghahanda tayo ng mga contact tracers na additional din bukod doon sa meron na tayo. ‘Yan nga siguro ay kabahagi ng pinag-uusapan ukol doon sa Bayanihan 2 at Bayanihan 3,” he said in a Palace briefing.

(We are preparing more contact tracers aside from those that we already have. That may be part of the discussions on Bayanihan 2 and 3.)

Duterte is set to meet with “leading members” of the House of Representatives and the Senate on Thursday to discuss the said two measures.

As of June 21, Monday, the country has reported a total of 17 cases of the Delta variant but all of them were detected at the country’s borders.

So far, there is no local transmission yet of the variant in the country.

Roque also said that the government is in the process of “integrating all existing systems” of contact tracing applications in the country with the government’s app StaySafe.ph to have a more unified system.

Roque earlier said that the country’s contact tracing efforts is its weakest point in its pandemic response.

JPV