Cops to be tapped as contact tracers in fight vs COVID-19 — Palace

Policemen will soon be deployed to track close contacts of COVID-19 cases as the government aims to further strengthen its response to the public health crisis.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque and Philippine National Police spokesperson Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac said on Wednesday that the government would tap policemen as contact tracers.

“The PNP [Philippine National Police] leadership has signified their conforme to this and they are in the process of training now the police officers that will act as contact tracers,” Roque told CNN-Philippines in an interview.

Banac said in a text message to GMA News Online that the contact tracers undergoing training belong to various police units.

“It really depends on how many they can afford to detail for this purpose,” Roque added.

Roque said Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, the government’s contact tracing czar, tapped policemen to find the people in his city who may have been exposed to an infected person. Magalong is a former police general.

“He basically divided the city into groups, into clusters. And the police who are working in the area anyway are told also to perform contact tracing task. So they just operate within their geographical unit," the Palace official said.

“And if in the course of talking to them they happen to come across a name who had close contact with the person in a different area, they simply communicate this to their counterpart in that particular area so that person can do contact tracing on that other person.”

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles reported on Wednesday that the government has already hired a total of 73,306 contact tracers. More contact tracers will be hired upon the enactment of the proposed Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, Año said.

Last week, Magalong said only 0.068% of local government units have an established contact-tracing capability, citing the results of a diagnostic survey.

As part of the government’s recalibrated response to COVID-19, the government placed the National Capital Region and the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan under modified enhanced community quarantine from August 4 to 18.

“There is massive targeted testing, where more frontliners are subject to PCR testing, including drivers of public utility vehicles, security guards, salesladies, receptionists, among others,” Roque said in a separate statement when asked to react to the article of Singapore's The Straits Times which said the Philippines could become Southeast Asia's new COVID-19 hotspot after the Philippines reported its biggest single-day jump in new cases on Tuesday.

“Hand-in-hand with our expanded testing strategy is intensified contact tracing capability.”

Roque also said the Philippines constructed more isolation centers and more hotel rooms are being made available for the mandatory quarantine of individuals who are asymptomatic and with mild symptoms.

“In terms of treatment, the construction or expansion of several hospitals in Metro Manila is currently underway and is being fast-tracked to accommodate more patients while scaling up our health system capacity with more dedicated COVID-19 beds and hiring additional health workforce,” he said.

The Palace spokesman likewise urged the public to follow the minimum public health standards such as wearing masks/face shields, washing of hands, and keeping physical distance.  — RSJ, GMA News