Jennifer Bretaña, head of the South Cotabato Provincial Planning and Development Office (Screen grab of a live streamed press conference)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY – Local government units (LGU) in Region 12 (Soccksargen) will fully adopt later this month a unified coronavirus disease 2019 or Covid-19 Contact Tracing System (CCTS) using an application developed by South Cotabato province.
Jennifer Bretaña, head of the South Cotabato Provincial Planning and Development Office, said the improvements and modifications on its CCTS are ongoing to expand its coverage to other localities in the region.
She said the move came after members of the Soccsksargen Regional Task Force (RTF) and Inter-Agency Task Force (RIATF) on Covid-19 passed a resolution last Aug. 26 adopting the use of the app in the entire region.
The joint RTF and RIATF agreed in a meeting last week to implement the system, which will be dubbed Region 12 or R12-CCTS, in all 45 municipalities and five cities in the area, she said.
“We’re targeting to complete the modification and other necessary preparations by next week so we can already launch the system region-wide,” Bretaña said in a briefing in Koronadal City on Wednesday.
The SC-CCTS, which was launched by the provincial government in June, functions as an electronic or digital logbook.
Through the quick response or QR-coded identification (ID) cards, it logs and tracks the movement of registered residents in establishments, offices and even in local events and activities, making the tracking and identification of close contacts of Covid-19 patients faster.
As approved by the RTF and RIATF, Bretaña said they created a dedicated website that would serve as the registration and information portal for the expanded system.
The layout of its component mobile application will be changed to include the map of Region 12 and the logos of its cities and provinces, she said.
Bretaña said the QR-coded IDs would feature the RTF-RIATF logos and those of the LGUs of the holders.
She said the Department of the Interior and Local Government-Region 12 has scheduled four batches of capacity building and technology transfer training next week for the implementers of LGUs.
LGUs will be trained on the operation of the R12-CCTS and management of their own system and database, she said.
As the original developer, she said the province’s information technology unit will handle the management of the server and maintenance of the system.
But she said the LGUs would have sole access to their own database, through the city and municipal epidemiology and surveillance units of the health offices.
Bretaña said the province’s CCTS would be used by other LGUs for free as approved by South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo Jr.
“The governor offered its use at no cost because we are facing an urgent problem right now and we already have a ready system in place,” she said.
With the rollout of the system, the official said contact-tracing for suspected and confirmed Covid-19 patients can be made region-wide.
She said it would protect residents in the province better against the spread of the disease since its possible transmission could now be properly traced.
As of Sept. 8, a total of 1,117,685 residents and 13,123 establishments in the province’s 10 towns and lone city have already registered with the SC-CCTS.
The registered residents and establishments from other areas in Soccsksargen have reached 377,550 and 4,180, respectively. (PNA)
