Baguio City Mayor and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong admitted that the contact tracing efforts of the country is still under par.
“Based on data, nandoon pa rin tayo sa 1:7. If you remember, our benchmark is kapag urban should be 1:37. For rural it should be 1:30 (Based on our data, we are still at the 1:7 ratio. If you remember, our benchmark for urban areas should be 1:37 and 1:30 for rural areas),” he pointed out.
“One of the major contributory factors kung bakit nangyayari iyan is dahil walang encoding system na maayos. Iyong ibang local governments ay mano-mano pa rin (One of the major contributory factors why this happens is the absence of a proper encoding system. Some local governments are still doing it manually),” he explained on Friday.
Magalong said they are now “coming up with a uniform data collection tool” that is compatible with the existing COVID-KAYA application to support immediate generation of data and further improve contact tracing efforts.
The government is planning to hire135,000 contact tracers. While this is “the most sufficient number”, but Magalong added that it should be “aligned with budget.”
He also emphasized boosting contact tracing efforts in local governments and urged that it “should be leadership-driven” with the involvement of local officials. – Report from Bea Bernardo, PTV News Online
