DOH saw “nothing wrong” with employing gossipers to do contact tracing.
The Department of Health (DOH) saw nothing wrong with employing gossipers to do contact tracing of people who might have close contact with people infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
This, as Department of Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said at a press briefing yesterday that the Philippine National Police (PNP) might have only wanted those people in order to help in tracking down those who might be carrying the disease.
Vergeire noted that there were guidelines about appointing contact tracers that should be observed, adding that there were also policies on the data that contact tracers should “collect” and “disclose” in order to make sure that the person’s privacy was respected.
Vergeire’s reaction came after Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Chief Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro shared an idea about employing gossipers as contact tracers.
As such, he was looking at the possibility of having an engagement with those people in the community in order to intensify its contact tracing in order to ensure that those possibly-infected were isolated and were given ample management.
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Vergeire also said that contact tracing and monitoring of those people who underwent home quarantine were really the functions of the DILG, LGUs, and the Barangay Health Emergency Rescue Team (BHERT).
In addition, Vergeire mentioned that the Department of the Interior and Local Government already has 73,985 contact tracers, while the Department of Health already deployed 8,786 nurses who assist in the monitoring and contact tracing.
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