Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 3) — National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 chief implementer Carlito Galvez Jr. commended the cities of Baguio, Valenzuela, and Parañaque for their “holistic and integrated” approach in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Galvez labeled the three cities as “benchmarks” when it comes to best practices in mitigating the impact of the disease.
“Kahapon ay binisita namin ang Valenzuela City at pinakita po sa amin ni Mayor Rex Gatchalian ang kanilang Mega Contact Tracing Center na binubuo ng 160 personnel working in three shifts 24/7,” Galvez told a media briefing on Thursday.
“Very systematic po ang approach ng Valenzuela City from prevention, contact tracing, isolation, and treatment, katulad din po ng Parañaque City,” he added.
[Translation: Yesterday, we visited Valenzuela City, and Mayor Rex Gatchalian showed us their Mega Contact Tracing Center comprised of 160 personnel working in three shift 24/67. Valenzuela City’s approach is very systematic — from prevention, contact tracing, isolation, and treatment, same as Paranaque City.]
Galvez also highlighted the medical disease surveillance and contact tracing technology being employed in both Baguio and Parañaque, which further improved COVID-19 detection in the areas. He said they will soon release video infographics on the cities’ best practices in order to educate other local government units (LGUs).
Meanwhile, Baguio City Mayor and coronavirus contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong continues to conduct physical and virtual seminars to help LGUs nationwide strengthen their contact tracing program, the NTF chief implementer said.
Magalong had earlier assured “radical” changes will be made to the current contact tracing protocols used by the Department of the Interior and Local Government, which will employ the same technology used in Baguio.
He said tracers will undergo a series of intensive training for cognitive interviewing, while digital data collection and analytics tools will also be employed during the process.
