According to contact racing czar, Benjammin Magalo admiitted that there was no effective contact tracing done in March when the nation saw an unprecedented surge in coronavirus infections.
The Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong admitted as much when he briefed the House committee on health’s virtual hearing on the failure of the government’s contact tracing efforts this past month.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has long called on local governments units (LGUs) to step up their contact tracing program, a crucial aspect in curbing the spread of COVID-19.
Magalong lamented how many LGUs failed in this function, when they should have coordinated contact tracing efforts with the police and military under the system already in place.
Data he presented to lawmakers showed the ratio of contact tracing efficiency nationwide went down from an average of 1:7 early this year to 1:3 in March, when the new active cases breached the 10,000 mark.
Magalong said this means contact tracing was limited to a coronavirus-positive patient’s household and no one else. This is not the principle of contact tracing. He added that IATF could only fix this problem by conducting a retraining on contact tracing for LGUs and support them in the analysis of their COVID-19 cases.
At present, the government is training contact tracers within the National Capital Region (NCR)-Plus bubble, as well as in Regions 5 and 12.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has repeatedly appealed to LGUs and the general public to use the StaySafe app for a “consistent and unified” digital contact tracing.
With additional report: Edu Puna, The Philippine Star
Photo Sources: theconversation.com, cnnphilippines.com, foreignpolicy.com
