DILG allays contact tracing fears

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) today dismissed apprehensions that the re-employment of only 15k contact tracers (CT) will weaken the Philippines’ contact tracing capacity which remains to be strong, 10 months since the start of the pandemic.

DILG Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan E. Malaya said the existing number of CT currently stands at 255,854 nationwide which is more than sufficient for the country’s needs.

Malaya added: “We already have 29,611 contact tracing teams (CTT) which is composed of 255,854 contact tracers nationwide. Even without the DILG hiring, we already have sufficient number of contact tracers.”

He said that the DILG rehiring only seeks to augment the current number of CT to meet Department of Health (DoH) standards of 1:800 contact tracer to population ratio.

“With our number of CT, we have exceeded DoH standard. Per the DoH, the ideal contact tracer to population ratio is 1:800 so to fully cover 108 million Filipinos, we actually need a total of 135,000 contact tracers only,”

“In fact, he said, with our current contact tracing capacity, a total of 368,255 confirmed Covid-19 cases were traced aside from the more than two million close contacts who were traced and assessed as of 16 January 2021.

“Our CTT have been doing an excellent job in tracking down and monitoring Covid-19 cases and their close contacts and we expect it to remain that way, especially with the rehiring of 15k CT. Our increased CT capacity was the game-changer that allowed us to cut the transmission in many communities across the country,” Malaya said.

Even without the DILG hiring, we already have sufficient number of contact tracers.

At present, there are 29,611 CT teams nationwide. Each CTT is composed of the Municipal/ City Health Officer with members from the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams, volunteers from Civil Society Organizations (CSO), and the augmentation CT from the DILG.

The said CTT also paved the way to testing 1,143,462 close contacts using the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) yielding 173,337 positive cases while 204,878 were tested using Rapid Diagnostic Test yielding 5,445 igM only positive results. More than 1.2-million close contacts also completed the required quarantine period.

The DILG will utilize P1.4billion from the unreleased balance from Republic Act 11519 or the extension of the validity of appropriations under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act that will supplement the P500million that has been allocated for the hiring of CT in the 2021 General Appropriations Act.