Gov’t plans to hire 50,000 more contact tracers: Año

July 15, 2020

The government is planning to hire 50,000 additional contact tracers as part of an intensified effort to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said on Wednesday.

During the Pre-SONA forum, Año said the country has  4, 818 contact tracing teams composed of 65, 574 members.

“Contact tracing team is important. That is our weapon against COVID… also testing and building isolation facilities,” he said.

Año said the government still needs 80,000 contact tracers that’s why they will recruit 50,000 more who will be assigned to different parts of the country.

“We are just waiting for the budget… We will make sure that this will be effective… We will also make sure to coordinate with the community so that we can trace and test and finally, isolate (positive individuals),” he said.

“So for the coming days, weeks, and months, we will further intensified (our tracing) and we can give jobs once we hire additional contact tracers,” Año added.

He said Metro Manila and Cebu City continuously hire contact tracers using their own budget.

Año said they will continue to monitor local government units to make sure they can give the proper assistance, especially that they are aiming for a localized-approach.

“We will balance the health and economy… we have to balance continuously and (go on a) localized response… aggressive intervention to maintain the low fatality ratio (and) increase the contact tracing teams, testing capacity and continuous building of isolation facilities,” Año said.

He also reminded the public to follow the minimum health protocols. Ella Dionisio/DMS