DILG thanks Congress for including P5-B contact tracing fund in 'Bayanihan 2'

CALOOCAN CITY, Aug. 23 (PIA) -- The Department of the Interior and Local Government on Saturday thanked both the Senate and the House of Representatives for appropriating P5 Billion for contact tracing under "Bayanihan to Recover as One Act" or "Bayanihan 2" saying this will finally allow the department to significantly ramp up contract tracing efforts across the country to cut the transmission of COVID-19.
 
DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año said the additional funds will allow the government to undertake aggressive contact tracing and active case surveillance and case finding which is a pillar of the National Action Plan against the global pandemic.
 
“We wish to thank Senate President Tito Sotto, Senators Ralph Recto, Grace Poe, Sonny Angara and all the other senators who championed this cause as well as the members of the House of Representatives led by Speaker Allan Cayetano for this significant shot in the arm for our country’s contact tracing program,” said Año who is also Vice-Chair of the National Task Force COVID-19.
 
“This is really good news because we can now hire a maximum of 50,000 more contact tracers to meet the WHO recommended ratio of one contact tracer for every 800 people. They will supplement the 85,000 contact tracers we now have and allow us to double the number of contact tracers in LGUs with rising cases, especially in Metro Manila,” he said.
 
He said that this development will now allow the government to meet the recommendations of Contact Tracing Czar Mayor Benjie Magalong of a 1:37 patient to close contact ratio in order to cut the transmission of the disease. “We will now be able to significantly increase the number of contact tracers to meet the 1:37 ratio target recommended by Mayor Magalong which has been effective in Baguio and in Cebu City,” he said.

Dr. Takeshi Kasai, director of the WHO office for Western Pacific, and Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, country representative, has recommended to the DILG the ramping up of the country’s contact tracing  efforts as part of the WHO’s continuing documentation of the country’s best practices in response to the pandemic.
 
The WHO has recognized as a best practice the new Contact Tracing system developed by Magalong which combined digital technology and cognitive interviews by contact tracers. Through the DILG, Magalong has been sharing the new system with other Local Government Units as part of his responsibilities as the NTF’s contact tracing czar.
 
The DILG Chief that they will be ready to recruit the additional contact tracers as soon as the funds are released to them by the DBM. He said that aggressive contact, active community involvement, and strict quarantine enforcement are the priorities now of his department. (PIA NCR) 

source https://pia.gov.ph/news/articles/1051057