Omicron variant poses challenge to contact tracing — Magalong

Contact tracing czar and Baguio City Mayor Mayor Benjamin Magalong on Friday said it is hard to maintain comprehensive contact tracing with the transmission of the Omicron variant.

In a radio interview, Magalong said that previously, the recommended ratio for contact tracer to cases was 1 is to 15, but the transmission of Omicron cases now requires 1 is to 30 or 1 is to 40.

“Itong Omicron umaakyat na ng 1 is to 30, 1 is to 40, so imposible na sa [contact tracer] na talagang sundin yung comprehensive dynamics ng contact tracing,” he said.

(The requirement for Omicron transmission is reaching 1 is to 30, 1 is to 40, so it would be impossible for a contact tracer to really follow the comprehensive dynamics of contact tracing.)

Due to this, Magalong said he recommended to the Department of the Interior and Local Government to instruct contact tracers to pursue only the first generation contacts of a COVID-19 case and leave behind the second and third generation contacts.

For Magalong, such challenge in contract tracing will be aggravated by the non-renewal of the 16,000 contact tracers who were hired by the DILG last year.

Earlier, DILG spokesperson Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said its budget for contact tracers has been reduced 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. — Joviland Rita/RSJ, GMA News