Caloocan launches ‘quarantine wristbands’ to monitor contacts of COVID cases

Caloocan City will use quarantine wristbands starting on Monday to monitor the close contacts of COVID-19 patients, according to a report of Mav Gonzalers on 24 Oras Weekend on Saturday.

Sikini Labastilla, head of Caloocan COVID-19 Command Center, said some close contacts are not following instructions to stay inside their homes or quarantine facilities while waiting for test results.

“Maraming tini-test na hindi nagpapaiwan sa bahay. Pagala-gala sila,” Labastilla said.

“We need a way to contain them in their homes or their quarantine facility. The best that we can do right now is through this technology. We use the phone to scan,” he added.

From the phone, the information on the location of the close contact will be forwarded to the COVID-19 Command Center.

The close contacts will have to check in twice a day to update the command center about their current location.

This development was welcomed by the Inter-Agency Task Force as they need around 50,000 more contact tracers to track possible transmission in affected areas.

Aside from this, Caloocan also aims to improve its health care capacity, quarantine facilities, and testing.

Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan said the COVID-19 situation already improved due to implementation of localized lockdowns and modified enhanced community quarantine.

Agriculture Secretary William Dar, who is the assigned overseer in Caloocan, said that the average daily new cases of COVID-19 in the city dropped to 61 from 1,696 two weeks ago.

Malapitan however lamented that the tallies of the city government and the Department of Health in COVID-19 cases do not match.

According to the local government unit, they will meet with the DOH to harmonize their data.

As of Saturday, the city has recorded a total of 5,971 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far.

Of this number, 4,378 have recovered while 184 died.

—Joviland Rita/KG, GMA News