BAGUIO, Philippines — The nation’s contact tracing has severely “deteriorated” in the past weeks due to several factors, this according to Baguio City Mayor and Contact Tracing Czar Benjamin Magalong.
Magalong said that for over 4 weeks or from February 28 to March 29, tracing went down from 1:7 to 1:3, or three contacts traced to every COVD-19 positive patient.
“Ibig sabihin… when you have contact tracing efficiency ratio of 1:3 to 1:5, ang nako-contact trace lang ho dyan are members of the household. So technically, wala pong contact tracing d’yan because ang gagawin lang po ng isang contact tracer, ia-announce lang ‘yung positive patient hanapin niyo yung members ng household and have them quarantine, ganun na lang po,” he added.
One of the reasons for the decline in tracing is that LGUs are not utilizing the data collection tool given by the national government.
There was also a breakdown in downloading information given during the training on contact tracing.
“Surprisingly, ito pong mga recepient na LGUs failed to cascade the training to their municipalities. Nakita po namin yan during our visit,” Magalong said.
This comes at a time where cases in the country have been constantly rising with hospitals unable to cope with the increasing demand for COVID-19 beds.
Reporting by Sofia Santiago