COVID-19 RESPONSE | Interior official denies contact tracing is ‘weakest link’ in pandemic response

May 13, 2021 , 07:10 PM

(May 13, 2021) – Prevention should be considered the weakest link in the country’s pandemic response, an interior official said on Thursday, defending the contact tracing system to identify, isolate and treat infected people.

Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya’s interior department was tasked to hire contact tracers to hunt down people who had been in contact with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients.

His statement was contrary to what the government’s contact tracing czar believed.

“Kami po sa DILG (Department of Interior and Local Government) have never believed na ang ating contact tracing is the weakest link; actually, we disagree,” Malaya told a public briefing.

“Ang tingin ko po, ang weakest link natin is ang ating prevention. Kaya nga po tayo nanghuhuli ng mga kababayan nating hindi sumusunod sa mga minimum health standards dahil nandun po maraming violations.”

However, Baguio City mayor Benjamin Magalong believed otherwise.

Each contact tracer in Metro Manila should be able to locate 15 close contacts of a patient, but tracers usually reached out to only five close contacts as of last month, according to Magalong.

Only 2,831 tracers were earlier assigned to the capital region out of the 15,000 people hired, but Malaya said they added 5,700 contact tracers in Metro Manila. He was hopeful the situation could improve now that reinforcements have been assigned to the pandemic epicenter.

While Malaya refused to recognize contact tracing was the weakest link, he admitted they were facing difficulties in locating guests of a resort in Caloocan City that operated despite quarantine restrictions. Only 108 out of 496 guests have so far been traced.

“Mahirap nga po ang contact tracing sa sitwasyon na ito dahil marami pong kapabayaan ang management ng resort. In fact, hindi po kumpleto yung mga impormasyon na nakalagay roon sa kanilang logbook o kanilang guest stubs,” Malaya said.

Still, he reiterated his commitment to cooperate with various law enforcement agencies to apprehend public health violators, sticking to President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to prevent any further spread of the virus.

More than 18,000 people were apprehended from May 6 to 10, according to police. Complaints were filed against 61 people. The others were fined or reprimanded and sent home.

“Pwede kayong ma-apprehend for not wearing your face mask and face shield,” Malaya reminded. “Dadalhin kayo sa presinto ngunit kayo po ay ifa-fine or iwa-warn lamang at ire-release kaagad. Hindi naman lahat ay nauuwi sa arrests.”

Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases have continued to increase with at least 6,385 new cases added on Thursday. More than 55,000 need to be treated in hospitals and monitored closely in isolation facilities, while more than 1.05 million have recovered from the virus. Close to 19,000 people have died from the disease. (Beatrice Puente/MM)

BREAKING | Mayroong 55,260 active #COVID19 cases ang bansa as of May 13.

Posted by News5 on Thursday, May 13, 2021

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