Stringer Dale Israel contributed to this report
Cebu City (CNN Philippines, July 7) — A team from the Baguio City government led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong is in coronavirus hotspot Cebu City to aid in its contact tracing efforts.
Healthcare workers, members of the Cebu City police and PNP Central Visayas, as well as Armed Forces of the Philippines personnel, will undergo training on contact tracing, Central Visayas Police chief Albert Ignatius Ferro said in a briefing Tuesday.
In the same press conference, Magalong said they will “share their best practices to Cebu City,” which has been placed under enhanced community quarantine until July 15 due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the city.
As of Monday, Cebu City has the most number of infections in Central Visayas. The Department of Health-Central Visayas said Cebu City has 6,870 cases. The region has a total of 10,506 infections, 6,572 of which are active cases, with 3,572 recoveries and 408 deaths.
Magalong said that ideally, a team of contact tracers — composed of a doctor, a nurse and a police investigator — should handle up to two COVID-19 cases only. Beyond that, he said, they will start to get overwhelmed.
For his part, Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella thanked Magalong for taking time to help them in their fight against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, overseer of the government’s COVID-19 response in Cebu City, said the city is “fortunate” to be trained by a group of contact tracing experts.
He stressed that an efficient contact tracing is one of the main “weapons” against COVID-19, without which they would not be able to contain the COVID-19 transmission.
Baguio City earlier trained its neighboring provinces, which saw a spike in infections, on the use of technology in helping slow down the spread of COVID-19.
