The government will need to hire 135, 962 contact tracers to reach the prescribed ratio of the Department of Health (DOH) to effectively combat the spread of infectious diseases like the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
In a press briefing, Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III revealed that the ideal number of contact tracer should be at least one for every 800 in the population.
Based from projections of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country already has 108.77 million population.
Duque stressed the importance of hiring sufficient number of contact tracers–personnel who are tasked to identify the people who interacted an infected individual–in containing the spread of Covid-19.
“First we need prompt mass tracing through sufficient number of contact tracers so Covid will not be able to escape [our monitoring] and were could immediately isolate [the people who suspected of being infected],” Duque said.
Sufficient funds
The Department of Finance (DOF) on Monday said the government is now considering the mass hiring of contract tracers.
It said this will not only provide alternative employment to the people, who are expected to be displaced because of the Covid-19 crisis.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año said they are considering hiring contact tracers for the local government units (LGU) as well for the national government.
“Our efforts should be integrated-– national, regional, provincial down to the municipalities but of course, these are all led by our local chief executives within their respective task forces,” Año said.
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, however, said they have to determine if the employed contact tracers will be given permanent plantilla positions or as contractual workers.
“But we have sufficient funds for this,” he added.
Provincial targets
Aside from sufficient contact tracers, DOH also recommended through its Administrative Order No. 2020-0016 the hiring of at least one epidemiology and surveillance officers for every 100,000 population; at least one Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT) for every 1,000 population and at least 10 trained staff per province.
This is part of the human resources component of the provincial targets of DOH for its Covid measures.
For its infrastructure targets, DOH said each province should have a least 1 ambulance or medical transport; a dedicated transport for specimen; a designated funeral home or crematorium; and a temporary treatment and monitoring facility.
Health undersecretary Maria Rosario S. Vergeire said the proposed infrastructure are not expected to cause the national government any funds.
“We encourage LGUs to use existing and available structures in their areas to be converted to temporary monitoring facilities based on our existing protocols,” Vergeire told BusinessMirror in a SMS.
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