Davao del Norte – The gates of Davao del Norte remains open for entry of people outside the province as long as they possess a QR code.
Davao del Norte COVID-19 Operation Center Incident Commander, Dr. Alfredo Lacerona of the Provincial Health Office (PHO), and E-Governance Program Software Development Project Manager Edwin Palero of the Provincial Human Resources Management Office (PHRMO), during Kapihan sa DavNor today addressed concerns regarding entry to the province.
Dr. Lacerona clarified that the contact tracing system is not intended to isolate the province and restrict outsiders from coming in, but rather, to ease up contact tracing in the event that a COVID-19 positive case may occur.
“Wala man tay gina restrict na tao. Tanan sila welcome gihapon nga musulod sa Davao del Norte. Ang atoa man lang in case nga naay ma positive dali ra ta maka trace” Dr. Lacerona said.
In support to this, Edwin Palero explained that residents from other provinces may get hold of Davao del Norte’s QR codes through online or through walk-in so that they can enter the province.
“Bisag taga Davao City, bisag taga Davao de Oro, o Davao Oriental, makakuha man sila ug QR code online or pwede pud sila mag walk-in, makakuha sila, makasulod man sila sa Davao del Norte ,” he said.
The distribution of the QR codes for the contact tracing system in the province is now at 77 percent completion, Dr. Alfredo Lacerona revealed, but this does not include the Island Garden City of Samal which has its own system. If included, the total completion is at around 90 percent, Dr. Lacerona said.
The province of Davao del Norte and the City of Samal originally had separate systems for the QR code since Samal LGU was the first to implement such method of contact tracing.
However, since Samal is part of Davao del Norte, “an integration between the two system is being worked on”, said Edwin Palero, Provincial Human Resource Management Officer.
With this integration, both systems will be connected and will function as one where QR codes made in Samal can be scanned by the province and vice-versa.
Additionally, a pilot testing of the QR code system was conducted by the province recently, where certain “target areas” in the province implemented the system for testing and for feedback.
Edwin Palero and Dr. Alfredo Lacerona confirmed during Kasamtangang Katikaran sa Kalambuan (KKK) radio program aired on August 20, 2020 that the pilot testing was a success and that no technical glitches were noted.
“Aduna tay pilot testing nga gipahitabo, and based sa atong monitoring so far wala gyud siyay aberya …as far as the system is concerned,” said Palero.
“Sa tanan pung mga scanning area kato nga time ug hantud kagahapon, so far wala man pud sila mamroblema unsaon pag scan. Online or offline, so far wala pamay niabot na problema sa amoa ,” said Dr. Lacerona.
As for the full implementation of the QR code system for contact tracing, Dr. Lacerona said that a meeting will be held between the provincial governor and the LGU mayors.
“Nagka istorya nami ni kuya gov the other day, sa implementation man jud ani ma involve man jud ang mga LGUs, ang mga mayors, so mag set nalang daw mi ug meeting after siguro ani na week ug sabotan na didto kung kanusa gyud ang full implementation ani ,” he said.
He also added that it has become even more important to use the system since local transmissions of COVID19 have already been reported in the Tagum and Panabo.
Regarding the manner in which the system is to be implemented, Dr. Lacerona mentioned that since an ordinance takes a longer time, the implementation will first have to be through an Executive Order while the ordinance will be worked on. (Jan Vincent Leuterio/PIA-XI).
