Number of contact tracers enough, LGUs should monitor performance –DILG

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said on Monday that local government units should monitor the performance of contact tracers as there was now an adequate number of them.

At the Palace briefing, DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said President Rodrigo Duterte approved the contract renewal of 15,000 contact tracers.

“Ang kailangan na lang pong tutukan ng mga lokal na pamahalaan ay yung performance n gating contact tracers dahil yan po ay ansa control na ng LGUs,” he said.

(What we only need is for local government units to supervise the performance of our contact tracers because they are already under the control of the LGUs)

Malaya made the statement when asked if the country has ever reached the ideal contact tracing ratio of 1 contact tracer is to 30 to 37 contacts in two days.

Around P1.6 billion was approved to extend the contracts of the contact tracers, which expired in August, to December 2021.

Malaya reminded contact tracers to perform active case findings; prioritize areas with clustering; identify close contacts of suspected, probable, and confirmed cases; as well as facilitate the isolation of active cases. — DVM, GMA News