{"id":261740,"date":"2020-07-15T08:19:35","date_gmt":"2020-07-15T12:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=261740"},"modified":"2020-07-15T08:19:35","modified_gmt":"2020-07-15T12:19:35","slug":"over-65k-contact-tracers-help-phs-covid-19-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/15\/over-65k-contact-tracers-help-phs-covid-19-response\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 65K contact tracers help PH\u2019s Covid-19 response"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A\u00f1o pointed out that each barangay should have its own contact tracer team while the business centers should have their own separate teams. (Pixabay photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Close to 5,000 contact tracing teams were formed as local government units (LGUs) continue to intensify contact tracing, testing and referrals of patients to hospitals and facilities in response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) health crisis, Interior Secretary Eduardo A\u00f1o said on Wednesday,<\/p>\n

During the pre-SONA Forum aired over state-run PTV-4, A\u00f1o said there are 4,818 contact tracing teams across the country which are composed of 65,574 members.<\/p>\n

“Sisiguraduhin natin na makikipag-ugnayan tayo sa<\/em>\u00a0community\u00a0at siguraduhin natin na ma<\/em>-trace\u00a0natin at mai<\/em>-test\u00a0natin at<\/em>\u00a0finally,\u00a0ma<\/em>-isolate\u00a0natin<\/em>\u00a0(We will make sure that we continue to coordinate with the community and ensure that we are able to treat, test and finally isolate patients). So for the coming days, weeks and months,\u00a0lalo pa tayong magpapaigting at inaasahan natin mayroon pa tayong mabibigyan ng trabaho kapag nakapag<\/em>-hire\u00a0tayo ng<\/em>\u00a0(we will intensify and we expect to provide jobs once we are able to hire) additional 50,000 contact tracers,” he said.<\/p>\n

A\u00f1o said the 65,574 contact tracers is a significant improvement from only 219 in March when the government started implementing an enhanced community quarantine.<\/p>\n

He added that these teams have so far traced and assessed 115,816 “close contacts” and 135,353 “general contacts” of Covid-19 patients nationwide.<\/p>\n

This is pursuant to DILG’s Memorandum Circular 2020-077 directing LGUs to establish their own task forces against Covid-19, including contact tracing teams.<\/p>\n

He noted that the recruitment of contact tracers has been ongoing in Cebu and in the National Capital Region, where there is a big number of Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n

The DILG is just waiting for the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to release the budget for this purpose, he said.<\/p>\n

A\u00f1o pointed out that each barangay should have its own contact tracer team while the business centers should have their own separate teams.<\/p>\n

He, meanwhile, appealed for the public\u2019s understanding and full cooperation with the government\u2019s programs to ease the people\u2019s suffering during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur path is full of great challenges. We cannot remain stagnant for too long. Neither can we afford to have a second wave of Covid-19 infections. Our actions and decisions need to be balanced and are in tune with the needs of the times. So we (appeal to) everybody to follow the minimum health standards,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Close to 5,000 contact tracing teams were formed as local government units (LGUs) continue to intensify contact tracing, testing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":261001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-261740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-christopher-lloyd-caliwan","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261745,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261740\/revisions\/261745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}