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DOH bares qualifications on hiring of contact tracers

By Ma. Teresa Montemayor

May 28, 2020, 12:18 pm

MANILA – The Department of Health (DOH) is working with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on the emergency hiring of contact tracers in strengthening its efforts to fight the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country.

In a Covid-19 virtual presser on Wednesday, DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said this effort could help those who lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic and are currently seeking employment.

"We have proposed the following qualifications to them (DILG) when they hire. These include being allied medical professionals such as a nurse, or at least a graduate or an undergraduate of an allied medical course," Vergeire said.

"We have also suggested the following to include in data gathering, and being able to interview cases and close contacts to gather data on travel history and conduct a health assessment and advocating public health because they need to provide health education messages as well," she added.

Earlier, the DOH asked the DILG to also consider tapping barangay health workers and social workers in support of our national response against Covid-19.

As of Tuesday, the DOH has processed 204 facility requests for the emergency hiring of additional health workers and has approved 8,606 slots for hiring in 204 hospitals, quarantine facilities, Philippine Arena Covid-19 facility, and Quezon City Institute temporary quarantine facility.

"We also have 2,730 personnel hired in different hospitals and quarantine facilities. We have also redeployed 1,221 nurses in DOH and local government unit hospitals under the DOH redeployment program, 185 nurses in Luzon and 1,036 in Visayas and Mindanao," Vergeire said. (PNA)

 

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