IATF Visayas PR
CEBU CITY (12 JULY 2020)— The Queen City of the South aims to have 130 contact tracing teams by this week as part of the proactive measures being carried out by the local government against COVID-19.
Cebu City Councilor and Emergency Operations Center (EOC) head of operations Joel Garganera made the announcement during a dialogue between the Inter-Agency Task Force for the management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Visayas and the City’s Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) on Saturday.
“Through this, we will increase our contact tracing teams by 2600%,” Garganera said.
From only five contact tracing teams, Cebu City currently has 41. The expansion of the city’s contact tracing teams to 130 will exceed the EOC’s target of 80 teams, or one per barangay.
To further boost community-level contact tracing efforts, Dr. Michelle Linsalata, EOC focal person for health facilities, appealed to barangay chairpersons to strengthen their partnership with the EOC by reporting and referring patients to the appropriate health facility.
“We are trying our best to decongest hospitals. That’s why [the] proper assessment of patients is important. We can maximize the use of cluster clinics to achieve this,” Linsalata said.
Meanwhile, retired MGen. Mel Feliciano, who is assisting Cebu overseer Roy Cimatu, stressed the importance of implementing proactive measures against COVID-19 in order for the city to be downgraded into a more relaxed quarantine classification.
“We are transforming the EOC from a reactive mechanism to a proactive one through aggressive contact tracing. We need to be ahead of the virus, and we cannot do it without your help,” Feliciano told the barangay leaders.
