A total of 420 contact tracers have been deployed in Bacolod City as part of the response to contain the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
These included 317 personnel hired by the Department of Interior and Local Government and 103 uniformed personnel from the Philippine National Police.
On Thursday, Oct. 29, 110 more contact tracers, comprising the third batch of new hires of the DILG, were dispatched to their respective clusters.
“Contact tracing is the heart of the Emergency Operations Center and is a big help in the fight against COVID-19,” Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia said during the orientation held Bacolod Government Center lobby on Wednesday.
The second batch, which was deployed on Tuesday, included 118 contact tracers and 89 for the first batch.
Under the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act 2, the DILG was authorized to hire 50,000 additional contact tracers nationwide to strengthen the government’s response versus the disease.
They were hired on a contract of service status and will receive a minimum salary of P18,784 per month.
The contact tracers are tasked to conduct interviews, do profiling, and perform initial public health risk assessment of COVID-19 cases and their identified close contacts; referral of close contacts to isolation facilities; conduct enhanced contact tracing in collaboration with other agencies and private sectors; conduct daily monitoring of close and general contacts for at least 14 days, and perform such other tasks in relation to the COVID-19 response.
As part of the local response, the EOC Task Force has established the Bacolod City Covid-19 Contact Tracing (BaCTrac) System, using an application adopted from the South Cotabato Covid Contact Tracing System.
BaCTrac is an innovation being optimized by the EOC for the efficient and expeditious tracing of contacts of confirmed Covid-19-positive patients.
Once registered in the system, an individual will be issued a BaCTrac card, which features the holder’s name, address, identification number, and a uniquely-assigned quick response (QR) code.
Through the online contact tracing system, the city government can record the movement of residents around the city and elsewhere in the province and easily locate people suspected of interacting with COVID-19 patients. NLG
