The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) has allocated an additional P200-million fund to extend the employment of 5,700 contact tracers currently deployed in Metro Manila.
In an online news briefing on Monday, Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III said the allocation of the new funding was made upon the request of the Department of Health (DOH) and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for the extension and retention of contact tracers in the face of the Covid-19 delta variant threat, which is currently wreaking havoc in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Both agencies requested for the extension of the program by another three months.
Bello, however, said they only have the budget to prolong the program by only two more months.
The contact tracers were hired under DOLE’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), which provides informal sector and marginalized workers with emergency employment.
Last April, DOLE tapped its TUPAD funds to help in the government’s contact tracing efforts.
The hiring for the program started last April and the employment of its beneficiaries should only have lasted for 90 days.
The government is currently ramping up its contact tracing efforts especially after the more infectious delta variant, which causes Covid-19.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said there are currently 35 confirmed cases of the delta variant in the country.
Of the said cases, three have already died. One of them was a 58-year-old female from the City of Manila.
The local government unit of Manila is currently tracking down the people who had close contact with the said fatality.