(PNA photo by Oliver Marquez)
MANILA – The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Friday thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for approving the budget for the re-hiring of its 15,000 contact tracers (CTs) until the end of the year to boost the country’s contact tracing efficiency amid the increase in Delta variant cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
“On behalf of our local government units (LGUs), lubos kaming nagpapasalamat kay Pangulong Duterte sa karagdagang pondo para magpatuloy ang serbisyo ng 15,000 contact tracers. Sa panahon ngayon na tumataas na naman ang mga kaso ng Covid-19 at sa pagsulpot ng mga panibagong variants, kailangan natin sila para patuloy nilang tuntunin at tukuyin ang mga close contacts ng Covid-19 positive cases (we sincerely thank President Rodrigo Duterte for the additional funds to avail of the services of 15,000 contact tracers. At this time where there is another surge in Covid-19 cases and new variants are appearing, we need them to continue tracing and identifying close contacts of Covid-19 positive cases),” DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año said in a news release.
He said local government units (LGUs), being at the forefront in managing the Covid-19 pandemic, need the national government’s unwavering support, now more than ever particularly in sustaining their local contact tracing efforts.
“The national government and the LGUs are in this grueling mission together to protect our people from the virus and to prevent its spread. Kapit-kamay tayo at walang iwanan hanggang sa tayong lahat ay makabangon na mula sa pandemyang ito (Let us continue to join hands and work together until we recover from this pandemic),” he said.
Año said it is crucial for the DILG to maintain the LGUs’ pool of trained contact tracers to ensure that the contact tracing operations in the country are sustained and that the government’s investment in the training of CTs is optimized.
Earlier on Friday, Senator Bong Go announced that the President approved the request of the DILG for additional funding to rehire the 15,000 DILG contact tracers for another five months.
The DILG earlier requested the President for an additional PHP1.7-billion budget for the extension of the services of the contact tracers until December 2021. Their contracts would have expired this month.
In his letter to the President dated July 23, 2021, Año said if the services of the 15,000 CTs will be discontinued, the total nationwide contact tracing personnel will be reduced by around 13 percent, bringing the operational capacity to only 72 percent against the ideal number.
Following the President’s approval, Año instructed the DILG regional offices to re-hire the 15,000 contact tracers who have been performing excellently in their jobs for the past few months.
“Hanggang maaari, i-renew na lang natin ang kontrata ng 15,000 contact tracers dahil alam at sanay na sila sa trabaho (As much as possible, let's just renew the contracts of these 15,000 contact tracers because they are already familiar with the job). Besides, we have no time to spare and every second matters dahil mabilis ang pagkalat ng virus (because the virus spreads quickly),” he said. (PR)
