SINCE the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the term contact tracing has become popular, and acknowledged by many as one of the key strategies of the government — not just here but also in other countries — to stem the tide of coronavirus infections.
In practical terms, contact tracing is defined as an effective disease control mechanism that involves identifying cases and their contacts, then working and cooperating with them to cut the thread of transmission, thereby limiting the occurrence of community outbreaks.
The public, not just the contact tracers hired by the government, should be made aware of what the process involves. Since tracers are actually looking for a “close contact” of a confirmed SARS CoV-2 virus carrier, it is well to know who may be considered a close contact. He or she is an individual who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a total of 15 minutes or more starting from 48 hours before the person began feeling sick until the time the patient is isolated.
‘There have been attempts to use apps and other information technology tools in the task of contact tracing, and it should be incumbent upon the DILG to pursue this IT solution.’
Tracers start with a case investigation during which patients are assisted to recall everyone with whom they have had close contact with during their infection-prone days.
Contact tracing is so important that the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) which leads the government response against the pandemic has designated a “czar” to handle the supervision of the program. He is Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong.
It may be late in the day but the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) only now has decided to beef up the number of contact tracers in Metro Manila, but offering the job to 5,000 more tracers, who will undergo the required training and orientation, of course. Prior to this, the DILG has already deployed 2,381 contact tracers in the National Capital Region in January for a six-month contract until June.
The DILG announced that 13,304 job seekers have applied for the position of contact tracer and 2,696 have been interviewed and qualified. They will be paid the minimum wage of P537 a day to be taken from the funds of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) under its Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD program.
There have been attempts to use apps and other information technology tools in the task of contact tracing, and it should be incumbent upon the DILG to pursue this IT solution. All ways of combating the deadly virus should be tried and employed if we are to survive the COVID-19 pandemic, the most devastating scourge of our generation.
