19 June 2020 – The united front against the Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) officially started a 14-day training and immersion program as part of the cooperation earlier agreed upon by the mayors of the adjacent local government units (LGUs).
Police operatives, heath and information technology (I.T.) personnel from La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay (LISTT) municipalities as well as from Benguet and Ifugao provinces, will be trained by the Baguio City Contact Tracing Team (BCCTT) in the field of contact tracing.
Apart from the training and immersion with the experts, the City likewise pledged to share its software and contract tracing tech not only to the province of Benguet but also to the provinces of Abra, Apayao, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province through a skills enhancement training this weekend.
In a related development, the BCCTT likewise invited Barangay officials for a familiarity session on contact tracing and technologies that the City is now using to prevent spread of COVID-19.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said that the barangays officials were called upon to keep them up-to-date with city strategies against the virus.
“Hopefully barangay officials get to understand and appreciate why there is a need to lockdown certain areas for certain periods. We need to look at the potential extent of infection in the barangay. It takes us 24 hours to be able to reach 70% of first level contact,” the Mayor added.
City Epidemiologist Dr. Donna Tubera-Panes for her part said the barangay officials will be tapped to help in the contact tracing in order to fast-track identification of contacts of a COVID-19 patient to curb the further spread of the virus.
“Time is of the essence in contact tracing, and the sooner we identify all contacts of the COVID-19 patient, the lesser the chance of the virus from spreading to other barangays.” Dr. Panes added. (Hbz) Photo credits to PIO Baguio.