Five emergency 911 telecommunicators infected by COVID-19

August 31, 2020

Five Emergency 911 telecommunicators were infected by COVID-19 causing problems in attending to concerns from the public, according to Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya on Monday.

In a TV interview, Malaya said three more personnel were tested positive from the virus last Sunday night.

“We are having problems right now because our emergency telecommunicators were also affected by the pandemic.In our first report, there were two positive and they were the DOH (Department of Health) call centers assigned to the emergency 911 national call center,” he said.

“And last night, I received a report from our executive director that three more were also positive,” he added.

 Malaya said they temporarily rerouted calls to local call centers to cope with the volume of calls.

Malaya said they did not expect this situationand asked for understanding from the public who use the Emergency 911 Hotline.

He said they also need to ensure the health and safety of emergency telecommunicators.

"We asked for the public’s understanding because we also need to ensure the safety and health of the emergency call center agents," the official said.

Malaya said some trainees cannot be deployed also due to infection and he advised people to use hotlines of local government units and police stations for complaints and important concerns.

On Sunday, Malaya said they are exploring  work-from-home arrangement for a portion of their workforce so that they can answer emergency calls and dispatch responders if a similar situation happens again. Ella Dionisio/DMS