Quezon City deploys 90 teams of Covid-19 tracers

NINETY teams of contact tracers have been deployed by the Quezon City government to beef up its contact tracing efforts in its 142 villages (barangay), Mayor Josefina “Joy” Belmonte said on Wednesday.

At the same time, Belmonte announced that more satellite contact tracing offices specifically in Districts 3 and 6 were opened to quickly help detect and stop the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the communities.

These offices will intensify the monitoring of suspected, probable and confirmed cases in the villages, Belmonte said.

She added that four more satellite offices would be set up in the remaining districts in the coming days.

The local government formed a total of 90 teams of field and phone contact tracers as it tapped the assistance of 300 barangay contact tracers and 30 personnel from the Philippine National Police.

“With around 600 contact tracers, our goal is to stop the virus right in its track. We continuously modify and improve our strategies to make sure we slow the virus transmission within the city,” Belmonte said.

Dr. Rolando Cruz, head of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), said identifying infection routes by going down to the communities is as equally important as finding treatment for Covid-19.

“By rebuilding connections to the communities, the city government can be able to track the disease and inform the residents of the proper precautions to take,” Cruz said.

He added that the strengthened community surveillance has led to the identification of numerous clustering cases and subsequent lockdowns in various areas.

“The job entails more than just calling patients and asking them some questions. They are effective in gauging and telling us the real situation at the barangay level,” the CESU head said.

The city now has a total of 30 service vehicles for contact tracing as 15 more cars were recently turned-over by Suzuki Philippines, the city officials said.

As of August 11, Quezon City has 7,873 Covid-19 confirmed cases based on data from the Department of Health and those with complete addresses in the city were 7, 798.

Those who recovered were at 5, 465 and death toll at 326.

Source: TheManila Times