The Department of the Interior and Local Government deployed an additional 118 contract tracers to Bacolod City on Tuesday (Oct. 27) as part of the continuing response to contain the transmission of coronavirus disease 2019..
DILG-Bacolod City Director Ma. Joy Maredith Madayag said the second batch of contract tracing personnel were assigned to their respective clusters.
The newly-hired contact tracers attended an orientation held at the Bacolod Government Center lobby on Monday with Mayor Evelio Leonardia and retired Maj. Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, chief implementer of the Inter-Agency Task Force-Visayas in attendance.
“Contact tracing is the heart of the Emergency Operations Center and is a big help in the fight against COVID-19,” Leonardia said.
With the deployment of 118 new hires, the total number of contract tracers in Bacolod is now 207, including the first batch of 89 personnel.
Under Bayanihan to Recover as One Act (Bayanihan 2), the DILG was authorized to hire 50,000 additional contact tracers nationwide.
The contact tracers are hired on a contract of service status and receive a minimum salary of P18,784 per month.
The contact tracers are tasked to conduct interviews, profiling, and perform an initial public health risk assessment of COVIDd-19 cases and their identified close contacts.
They refer the close contacts to isolation facilities, conduct enhanced contact tracing in collaboration with other agencies and private sectors and conduct daily monitoring of close and general contacts for at least 14 days.
They also 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. NLG
