DOWN to one. That was how Baguio City Health Services Office and the Department of Health-Cordillera reported the city’s log on active Covid-19 cases as of this writing, July 7, 2020. Unmistakably down to one, yes, and you wish you could shove the figure up the noses of people hereabouts. How in the world is that even possible?

Well, thanks to some friends from cooler places to spare us time in this hot city to show us how, for strawberry’s sake, could “down to one” be thinkable even for our moonstruck officials.

Upon the invitation of Police Regional Office (PRO) Central Visayas Chief Albert Ignatius Ferro, Baguio City Benjamin Magalong has brought with him a core group of doctors, nurses and investigators from the police and other law enforcement agencies to share their city’s successful method of contact tracing.

The team, which arrived Tuesday, July 7, 2020, probably hit the ground running, as Cebu City inches towards culmination of its current enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella said that, at this point, the city only has 35 teams of contact tracers. The aim is to have a “massive” contact tracing operation with 80 teams comprised of five members each.

We simply pale in comparison to what Baguio City has done. Magalong said: “For the contact tracers, as much as possible, one team should be dedicated to one particular case only; or probably, two cases per team only. But if three cases are assigned per team, you will overwhelm the team.”

It wouldn’t be as though there are only 10 or 20 contacts per case, he said, “For one case, we will be able to determine first level contacts as much as 153 (people),” he said.

Magalong, a retired police official, had brought with him specialized knowledge in investigation into his city’s fight against the pandemic, employing what he calls “cognitive interviewing.”

That, plus an enabling technology, will be what Magalong’s team will impart to frontliners in Cebu City.

Baguio City has been using what it calls the Covid-19 E-system, a computer program that analyzes transmission patterns in real-time on a visual map. Cebuanos, home to a burgeoning startup industry, wonder how the Cebu City Government’s imagination could possibly overlook its own resources, and for a mayor who, at the outset of his term, vowed for a government that would be “inclusive” and “consultative.”

While the PNP infuses more men into the operation, Ferro said the team welcomes volunteer students who may bring their laptops for the training.

Without massive contact tracing, as with mass testing, Cebu City will forever be fighting the pandemic blindly, failing in its promise to deal with the pandemic with sufficient science.

The Cebuanos have Magalong and Baguio City to profusely thank for.