THE government will hire an additional 1,000 contact tracers under the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) emergency employment program for informal sector workers.
In a virtual press briefing, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III announced that they will now hire a total of 5,754 contact tracers, instead of 4,754, under the Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) program.
Bello said an additional P65 million has been allocated for the program. A contact tracer will be paid P16,000 per month, or P48,000 for three months.
"We will add this to the initial budget of P230 million. The total budget will now be P295 million," said Bello.
He said the program has received around 10,000 applications from April 17 to 22.
Training of qualified applicants will begin on Monday, April 26, while deployment will begin on May 1.
Last month, the DOLE volunteered to tap displaced informal sector workers as contact tracers amid the recent surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in Metro Manila. (HDT / SunStar Philippines)