(Eagle News) — The Department of the Interior and Local Government on Friday, Aug. 21, welcomed Congress’ approval of a budget that would allow for the hiring of contact tracers under the proposed Bayanihan law 2.
In a statement, Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said with the P5 billion from the P165.5-billion budget under the approved final version, a maximum of 50,000 more contact tracers can be hired by the government, allowing for compliance with the World Health Organization-recommended ratio of one contact tracer for every 800 people.
“They will supplement the 85,000 contact tracers we now have and allow us to double the number of contact tracers in LGUs with rising cases, especially in Metro Manila,” he said.
According to Año, the DILG will be ready to recruit the additional contact tracers as soon as the funds are released by the Department of Budget and Management.
Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said the additional contact tracers will be trained by the DILG’s Local Government Academy in the “cognitive interviewing technique,” which is similar to the questioning technique employed by the police.
“Our LGA and PPSC has developed 4 modules in our training program and we will ensure that all those hired will be trained,” Malaya said.
He added manual contact tracing, as in other countries, should be done hand in hand with digital technology.
“There are also limitations in just using technology because not everybody has a smartphone which is what is required in digital contact tracing,” Malaya said.
“Even those with smartphones, compatibility of Android with IOS is another problem. The phone owner should also always update the status of his health which needs cooperation from users,” he added.
On Thursday, the Senate ratified the bicameral version of the proposed Bayanihan law 2, which, if passed into law, will provide for the economic stimulus for the country’s economic recovery.
This was hours after the Senate and the House of Representatives came up with the reconciled version, after they came to terms with some contentious issues, including a P10-billion budget alloted for the tourism industry.