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DILG chief says over 80,000 contact tracers needed nationwide
By ANNA FELICIA BAJO, GMA News More than 80,000 contact tracers are needed as part of the government's efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Thursday.
In a press statement, DILG Secretary Eduardo Año said a total of 82,537 contact tracers are needed to form part of the contact tracing teams of local government units nationwide.
"Given that there is still no vaccine or cure to COVID-19, the government needs to train and hire contact tracers who will break the chains of transmission of COVID-19 by identifying those who may have been exposed to the virus and monitoring them daily for 14 days,” he said.
According to Año, the agency has submitted a proposal to the Inter-agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-MEID) for the hiring and training of contact tracers.
"We are waiting for the approval of the IATF-MEID so that our LGUs can start hiring and training contact tracers in their localities. We need to be one step ahead and ready with the required number of contact tracers rather than be caught off guard when the need for contact tracers arises in case of a second wave,” he said.
The DILG chief, however, said they proposed to the IATF the hiring of at least 50,000 since the LGU continues to increase the number of their contact tracers and that there are also volunteers from some private sectors.
He said those who will apply as contact tracer must preferably be graduates of Bachelor’s Degree on Allied Medical Courses, other health-related courses, or Criminology, adding that second priority could be given to those applicants who have completed at least two years of college education in medical or criminology-related courses.
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Año also said applicants shall preferably have one-year relevant experience and four hours relevant training.
Latest data from the DILG indicated that at present, there are 52,463 contact tracers nationwide who are part of 3,347 local contact tracing teams.
“Per WHO, the ideal contact tracer to population ratio is 1:800 so to fully cover 108-million Filipinos, we actually need a total of 135,000 contact tracers,” Año said.
Meanwhile, DILG Undersecretary for Peace and Order Bernardo Florece Jr. noted that a total of 87,092 out of 94,534 contacts (92.13%) have already been traced nationwide as of June 15.
“It is contact tracers who advise the general contacts whether they need to immediately undergo home quarantine or be placed in isolation facilities,” Florece said.
He said "contact tracers are tasked to monitor both symptomatic and asymptomatic close contacts on a daily basis for 14 days from the last point of exposure."
He added that those who have tested positive on COVID-19, either through rapid test or PCR test, are referred to hospital facilities for proper treatment.—AOL, GMA News