Full implementation of StaySafe.ph expected within 10 days

MANILA – The public can expect the full implementation of contact tracing application StaySafe.ph within 10 days, Malacañang said on Friday.

This developed amid moves to improve the government’s coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response efforts.

Roque said several issues concerning StaySafe.ph have already been settled.

“Wala na pong problema sa StaySafe app. As of yesterday, lahat ng gusot, naplantsa na. Full implementation of StaySafe app within 10 days (There are no more problems with the StaySafe app. As of yesterday, all problems have been ironed out. The full implementation of StaySafe app is expected within 10 days),” he said in a press briefing in Ilocos Norte.

To avoid confusion, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) will serve as the end-user of StaySafe.ph, Roque said.

“We will implement StaySafe once and for all. The end-user will now be DILG because DILG, in the first place, is in charge of contact tracing,” he said.

Roque said local government units (LGUs) with their own contact tracing applications are required to integrate the application with StaySafe.ph.

Roque also noted that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) has signed Resolution 102 which mandates LGUs to trace and quarantine all close contacts “within the next 24 hours”.

He added that LGUs should test close contacts who become symptomatic and begin the contact tracing among suspect Covid-19 cases.

In November last year, the IATF-EID signed a resolution, making the use of StaySafe.ph mandatory in all national government agencies and instrumentalities and LGUs.

The IATF-EID in January this year issued another resolution, directing DILG to ensure LGUs’ proper enforcement StaySafe.ph in an effort to step up the efforts to trace close contacts of individuals who are found to be positive of Covid-19.

House Speaker Velasco earlier lamented that the Philippines is only able to identify at least seven contacts per coronavirus-infected person when the ideal contact tracing ratio should be 1:35 for urban areas and 1:30 for rural communities.

On March 9, the House Committees on Health and on Communications Technology adopted House Resolution 1536 authored by Velasco which calls for a unified national contact tracing protocol to ensure a more effective health emergency data monitoring system in the country.