Magalong to 'recapacitate' LGUs amid contact tracing’s low productivity

Testing czar Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong will again capacitate local government units to improve their contact tracing efforts from low productivity.

At the Laging Handa public briefing on Tuesday, Magalong said they are coordinating with the Department of the Interior and Local Government as well as the World Health Organization for this.

“Magkakaroon tayo ulit ng recapacitating ng ating mga LGUs. Ngayon kino-consolidate na ng ating DILG ang listahan ng local government na kailangan ng tulong,” he said.

(We will capacitate again the local government units. Currently, the DILG is consolidating the list of local governments that need help.)

This time, Magalong noted that that the guidelines in contract tracing for second and third generation contacts of COVID-19 cases are already included in the manual given to LGUs.

He said that they are working with the WHO for these new instructions.

Earlier, Magalong lamented that the national contact tracing efficiency ratio showed there is one contact tracer for every seven identified contacts of COVID-19 case.

He said the ideal ratio for urban setting is 1:30 to 37, while for rural area is 1:25 to 30.

Due to this, DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya expressed alarm over the low ratio considering that the government has already increased the number of contact tracers.

According to Magalong, the low contract tracing efficiency ratio can be attributed to lack of supervision, data collection system issues, and overwhelmed contact tracers.

The total number of contact tracers is now 255,850, DILG said. -MDM, GMA News