By John Clifford Lintao
OVER 55,000 individuals, mostly displaced workers, have applied as government contact tracers, according to the Department of Interior and Local Government.
At the Senate budget hearing, DILG Undersecretary Bernardo Florece said that the number of applicants for contact tracer positions plummeted to 55,213, exceeding its target of 50,000.
“We have already 55,213 applicants and 47,000 of which were already processed,” Florece said during the deliberation on the DILG’s P6.7-billion proposed budget for 2021.
He added that of that figure, more than 10,000 were already officially hired.
The DILG said the P5-billion budget provided by the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act or Bayanihan 2 will be used to compensate each with P18,784 monthly salary in a contract-of-service status.
Contact tracers have been given the following tasks:
• conduct interviews, profiling, and perform an initial public health risk assessment of COVID-19 cases and their identified close contacts;
• refer 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 response.
The DILG was requested to submit to the Senate finance committee the details of the contact tracers’ deployment nationwide.
As of mid-September, the Philippines has 97,400 contact tracers and the hiring of additional workforce is seen to help the country reach the ideal ratio.
“With the additional 50,000 contact tracers, we will now be able to meet the Magalong formula of tracing 37 close contacts of 1 COVID patient up to the 3rd degree,” Secretary Eduardo Año had previously said.
Año was referring to Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong who was named the country’s contact tracing czar after successfully leading contact tracing efforts in his jurisdiction.