Set aside P5 billion out of Bayanihan bill for contract tracers, Año asks Congress

August 13, 2020

Interior Secretary Eduardo Año on Thursday appealed to Congress to allocate P5 billion out of the P162 billion  set aside under the Bayanihan to Recover as One bill to hire and train 50,000 contact tracers to prevent transmission of  COVID-19.

Año said he sent a letter to Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri proposing hiring and training of qualified persons to serve as members of contact tracing teams starting this September with a corresponding budget requirement of P5 billion.

He said while contact tracing efforts are being conducted by more than 7,000 contact tracing teams with a total of more than 85,000 contact tracers, there is a need to hire at least 50,000 more to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended ratio of one contact tracer for every 800 people.

“With a projected population of 108 million this year, we need 50,000 more contact tracers to attain the ideal number of 135,000 contact tracers to pursue quick and credible tracing of close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients,”  Año said.

Año also said the current number of contact tracers cannot meet the recommendations of Contact Tracing Czar Mayor Benjie Magalong of a 1:37 patient to close contacts ratio and cut  transmission of the disease.

“We need 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.

The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) proposes including a provision under Section 4 of Senate Bill 1564 or the Bayanihan to Recover as One Bill on the allocation of “P5 billion to finance the hiring of 50,000 contact tracers to be implemented by the DILG which shall include, but not limited to, recruitment, training, compensation and operational expenses.”

The DILG is also proposing to amend Section 3 (b) of the bill to ensure contact tracing efforts in the community will be “subject to the rules and regulations to be issued by the DILG which shall include recruitment, training, compensation, among others, of contact tracers.”

Under the DILG’s proposal, the minimum qualification standards for a contact tracer are: a graduate of a bachelor’s degree on allied medical courses or Criminology;  one-year relevant experience; and four hours of relevant training.

Second priority will be given to those who have completed at least two years of college education in medical or criminology- related courses provided they have  relevant training and experience.

The hiring of contact tracers will be facilitated by he DILG regional offices with the help of the DILG provincial, city and municipal offices who will screen the applicants.

Out of the 50,000 contact tracers to be hired, 20,000 will be deployed in Luzon, 15,000 to the Visayas, and another 15,000 in Mindanao based on the region’s population and deducting the current number of contact tracers working in the areas

“We are racing against time.  Every single second counts and the longer we fail to expand our contact tracing capacity, the higher the probability that the virus spreads to more communities. We, therefore, need more contact tracers urgently to break the chain of transmission of this virus,” Año said.

Pursuant to Resolution 25 of the Interagency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID), the DILG is the lead agency in the government’s contact tracing efforts.  Ella Dionisio/DMS