CONTACT tracers who are due to be hired by the government under the Bayanihan 2 law will be deployed starting Thursday next week, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said yesterday.
During the Laging Handa press briefing, Año reiterated that the employment of the 50,000 additional contact tracers will be a “game changer” in the government’s continued fight against the coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Bayanihan 2 Act, which was recently enacted into law, allocates P5 billion for the hiring of the extra contact tracers. The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) has said that the government has over 200,000 contact tracers deployed throughout the country, most of whom are volunteers.
“Ang target natin is October 1 mag-start na sila ng work nila. Tamang tama naman na ‘yun ang period na ma-re-release na ang budget sa atin (Our target is to have them start by October 1. That is actually timely because that is when the budget will be released to us),” Año said.
The DILG began accepting applications on September 14 and yesterday was the deadline for the submission. The position prefers applicants who are bachelor degree holders or
those who had some college education in allied medical or criminology courses.
Año did not say the number of applicants or how many have been hired so far.
Prior to their deployment, Año said the new contact tracers will undergo training, but said they would learn more when already “on the job or on the site training.”
Año said the additional contact tracers will be deployed mostly in areas where there are high numbers of COVID-19 infections in the cities or towns, provinces or regions where they were hired.
