Philippine contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong said there is an “urgent need” for each locality to have a contact tracing champion if they want to boost their surveillance efforts for coronavirus cases.

The Baguio City mayor and “anti-COVID” czar made the statement on Wednesday, August 26, as he faced the House committee on Metro Manila development to talk about the status of COVID-19 contact tracing efforts in the country.

Magalong observed that local government units (LGUs) with higher contact tracing efficiency tend to be governed by mayors who are closely monitoring the surveillance efforts on the ground.

“There’s a strong correlation between local government performance in contact tracing and the level of involvement of the local chief executive Nakita po namin ‘yan sa iba’t-ibang mga local government units (We saw that in various LGUs),” Magalong said.

If the mayor cannot fulfill this job given other equally pressing matters in the COVID-19 crisis, Magalong suggests tapping a city or municipal councilor, or even a department head, to become the contact tracing champion.

“There’s also an urgent need to develop contact tracing champions in each LGUs, especially [if the] mayor is not so much involved. So we would rather look for councilors or probably head of departments to be the contact tracing champion,” he said.

Magalong added that when local officials do not prioritize contact tracing, the people tasked to look for the close contacts of COVID-19 cases do not get the proper incentives to do their job well.

“Minsan po ‘yung contact tracer, siya po ‘yung swabber. Sarili pa niyang sasakyan, sarili pa niyang gasolina. Talagang tatamarin ako magtrabaho,” he said.

(Sometimes the contact tracer is also the swabber. He or she will use his or her own car and pay for the gasoline as well. If that’s the case, even I would not be motivated to go to work.)

As of August 18, Magalong said the Philippines has organized a total of 15,103 contact tracing teams with 149,043 contact tracers across LGUs.

Magalong, however, admitted this is not enough. In Metro Manila alone, the contact tracing ratio barely improved from 1:4 to 1:5 after the area was earlier reverted to the stricter modified enhanced community quarantine for two weeks. 

The Philippines has so far tallied 202,361 cases of COVID-19, with 3,137 deaths and 133,460 recoveries. – Rappler.com