PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has approved the allocation of funds for the rehiring of 15,000 contact tracers as part of the government's coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) response.
Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año on Friday, August 6, 2021, said it will aid the local government units (LGU) in managing the Covid-19 pandemic.
"It is crucial for the DILG to maintain the LGUs' pool of trained contact tracers in order to ensure that the contact tracing operations in the country are sustained and that the government's investment in the training of CTs is optimized," he said.
Senator Bong Go said the approved budget will cover the salaries of 15,000 DILG contact tracers for another five months.
The DILG earlier requested the President for an additional P1.7 billion budget for the extension of the services of the contact tracers until December 2021. Their contracts would have expired this month.
Año said that if the services of the 15,000 contact tracers will be discontinued, the nationwide contact tracing personnel will be reduced by around 13 percent, bringing the operational capacity to only 72 percent against the ideal number.
With the approval of the funding, Año instructed the DILG regional offices to renew the contracts of the 15,000 contact tracers. (Third Anne Peralta-Malonzo / SunStar Philippines)