Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong shareshis city’s best practices in contact tracing. Photo courtesy of PRO-3
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Some 100 health workers and police in Central Luzon attended Tuesday the one-day training on contact tracing held at Camp Olivas.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who serves as the National Inter-Agency Task Force Against Covid-19 tracing czar, said it is better to have many contact tracing teams because there are cases when first level contacts of positive cases can reach as high as 100 people.
Its contact tracing e-system, a partnership between health workers and law enforcement officers, is considered to be one of the best practices of local government units in containing the spread of the disease.
For his part, NIATF chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. highlighted the crucial role of barangay health emergency response teams (BHERTs) during this health crisis.
“Deployment of BHERTs is part of the government’s efforts to strengthen the country’s contact tracing capability under the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate Strategy of the National Action Plan against Covid-19 Phase II. This aims to balance the health and safety of the public and the economic recovery of the nation,” the cabinet official explained.
In a statement, Police Regional Office 3 director Brig. Gen. Rhodel Sermonia emphasized the importance of the one-day training: “As frontliners and one of the agencies tapped to fight Covid-19, we really need this kind of training for us to be equipped in this main public health intervention for Covid-19 response.”
Other officials present included Bases Conversion and Development Authority president and NIATF testing czar Vince Dizon, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Martin Dino and Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Assistant Secretary Wilben Mayor. — Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu/PIA–3
