Mayor Strengthens Contact Tracing Due to Increase of COVID-19 Cases

Since there has been a surge of  Coronavirus Disease 2019 or COVID-19 cases in Baguio City within the past few days, Mayor Benjamin Magalong further toughened the city’s contract tracing teams. 

Additional investigators and Intelligence Personnel

Baguio City Police Office Director P Col. Co has been asked by Mayor Magalong to orient more investigators and intelligence personnel on cognitive interviewing to team up with the City Health Services Team in tracking down contacts of the new COVID-19 positive patients.

The City Police Office Director has made an immediate response as he appointed Six (6) more Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) – trained investigators to the group of contact tracers. This makes the number of persons on the field reach Twenty (20) – Fourteen (14) of which are from the Baguio City Police Office (BCPO) and Six (6) are from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Convincing Patients to Disclose Their Identities

Part of Mayor Magalong’s strengthening way of strengthening contact tracing is by exerting more effort into convincing the COVID-19 positive patients to disclose their identities. According to the mayor, this is crucial as full disclosure helped alert contacts and cut down tracing time and resources.

Earlier, there have already been COVID-19 patients who bravely and selflessly disclosed their identities to the public in hopes of helping in the process of contact tracing. Some of these valiant individuals, including a nurse and a doctor, did not only reveal their identities but also shared their experience through a narrative. According to PIO Baguio, currently, there are already Twelve (12) out of Thirty (30) patients who responded to the mayor’s call for transparency.

The Use of Computer-aided System

The city also utilizes a computer-aided system as a complementary tool that supplements our Baguio City contact tracers. According to Executive Asst. V Philip Puzon, through the link analysis software, a surveillance system was formulated using support, seamless coordination, and automated analysis.

Enrolling and tracking suspected cases; capturing symptoms, demographics, risk factors and exposures; recording lab results, linking confirmed cases with contacts; and monitoring patient outcomes are the functions of this surveillance system.

SOURCE PIO Baguio