Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 12) — The national government is giving more responsibility to local government units by asking them to ensure that close contacts of all suspected COVID-19 cases will be traced to detect the possible spread of infection.
This new task was included in the Inter-Agency Task Force Resolution No. 102, which aims to strengthen the enforcement and implementation of minimum public health standards as coronavirus cases continue to surge in the country.
The IATF said local government units should “actively look” and ensure that all suspected cases will take an RT-PCR test and isolated within 24 hours.
After several delays, the national government also ordered the full use of its official contact tracing app StaySafe across the country in the next 10 days.
Malacañang on Thursday admitted that contact tracing remains to be the weakest point in the Duterte administration’s COVID-19 response.
