DOLE to provide funding for 14,000 Metro Manila contact tracers –MMDA's Abalos

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) will provide Metro Manila with the funding to hire 14,000 contact tracers who will immediately test and trace possible COVID-19 patients, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said Tuesday.

"Ngayon, mga three days ago tumawag ang Department of Labor, tumawag po si Sec [Silvestre] Bello, na magbibigay sila ng P230 million -- this is equivalent to 14,000 contact tracers for 10 days," said MMDA chairman Benhur Abalos on Balitanghali.

(Three days ago, DOLE called us, saying they provide us with P230 million which is equivalent to 14,000 contact tracers for ten days.)

However, Abalos said they will use the budget for three months to ramp up contact tracing efforts since the new COVID-19 variants were present in all cities in the metropolis.

"So ang gagawin namin, imbes na ten days, gagawin naming pang-3 buwan ang pondo. Pagkakasiyahin na lang namin kasi iniisip namin na hindi pwedeng 10 araw lang to one month kakapusin po, itong variant na ito iba po, gagawin nating talong buwan itong contact tracing, ilalatag natin sa buong kalakalang Maynila," he said.

(So what we will do is, instead of 10 days, we will use the funds for three months because funds for 10 days to one month will not be enough given the presence of the COVID-19 variants. We will do this for three months in the whole of Metro Manila.)

The DOLE previously announced that displaced workers in its employment program would be hired as contact tracers for the NCR plus.

This year's P4.5 trillion national budget allocated a P1-billion for the contact tracing efforts of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The Philippines so far has at least 255,000 contact tracers based on the Interior Department's records. — DVM, GMA News