Cut budget for contact tracers a challenge to DILG, says Malaya

The Department of the Interior and Local Government is facing a challenge as its budget for contact tracers has been reduced, its spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya.

Interviewed on ANC, Malaya said the department received P250 million for contact tracers for 2022.

“For this year, there was a decrease in the budget of the DILG for contact tracing funds. We are only given P250 million by Congress in the General Appropriations Act of 2022,” he said.

Malaya lamented how the DILG would maintain its 15,000 new contract tracers hired just last year with the reduced budget.

In the meantime, Malaya said concerned local government units will absorb the 15,000 contract tracers that the DILG initially hired.

On Tuesday, the Philippines' COVID-19 case count surpassed three million with 28,007 new infections, bringing the country's tally to 3,026,473. The active cases rose to 181,016. —LBG, GMA News