Gov’t orders consolidation of data from digital contact tracing apps

The government’s COVID-19 task force has ordered the consolidation of data from digital contact tracing applications, Malacañang said Friday.

These include data gathered by Department of Health-accredited COVID-19 health facilities, temporary treatment and monitoring facilities, hospitals, establishments, workplaces, transportation vehicles/ hubs, and local government units, according to presidential spokesperson Harry Roque.

Data collected through these applications should conform with specific minimum data requirements set by the government and must be submitted to a centralized tracing data repository, which will be linked to either COVID-Kaya or the COVID-19 Document Repository System.

“StaySafe.ph will be the government’s digital contact tracing application of choice and will be made mandatory for adoption and use in all national government agencies and instrumentalities as well as LGUs,” Roque said.

“Private establishments, facilities and offices are encouraged to use Stafysafe.ph while for those with existing contact tracing applications they are enjoined to integrate their systems with the Staysafe.ph system,” he added.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) directed the sub-technical working group on ICT solutions to formulate guidelines for the integration of digital contact tracing applications “with the end view of seamless linking and sharing of essential, necessary, and accurate laboratory data, case data and statistical results.”

The IATF also created the Data Resiliency for Ease of Access and Management (DREAM) Team, which was tasked to deploy, build capacity and monitor the use of ICT solutions that are part of the official COVID-19 ICT ecosystem.

The DREAM Team is headed by the Department of Information and Communications Technology, with the Interior, Health, and Science departments as well as the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines as members. 

“The DREAM Team will not be involved in any data collection activities,” Roque said.

“The involvement of the PNP Directorate for Information and Communication Technology Management and the AFP Information Systems Management Division in the Team is because they can supplement/augment the ICT capacity needed.”

Roque said the creation of the DREAM Team would empower LGUs to be more confident in using the ICT ecosystem that "will help us defeat the COVID-19 pandemic." — RSJ, GMA News