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Deployment of contact tracers pressed

INTERIOR and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año is confident that the government will be able to deploy 50,000 contact tracers (CTs) before the end of the month.

As of last week, the DILG announced that it had already hired 26,872 CTs who have been deployed to various local government units (LGUs).

Another 12,197 applicants have met the requirements of the position and their papers are now being processed for employment.

“Bagaman matindi ang pangangailangan ng ating pamahalaan ng mga CT ay tinitiyak namin na ang lahat ng maha-hire ay qualified sa posisyon at nagpahayag ng commitment sa pinapasok nilang responsibilidad,” Año said.

The DILG provincial and city offices are now busy processing applications to ensure that the target of at least 50,000 CTs will be met as prescribed under the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act in order to cut the transmission of COVID-19 in all corners of the Phiilippines.

“Even prior to the signing of the Bayanihan 2 Law, the DILG field offices were already preparing for the recruitment, hiring, and training of the new contact tracers. And now, a few weeks after the signing of the law, more than 26,000 have already been hired and deployed to the various provinces,” he said.

According to the latest DILG data, 45% or 12,421 of the target CTs to be hired in Luzon have been employed; 69% or 6,234 for Visayas; and, 62% or 8,217 for Mindanao including BARMM.

Meanwhile, DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya thanked all the applicants for taking an active part in the fight against COVID-19. He said that as CTs, they have become frontliners and are now considered “new normal heroes” in the on-going public health emergency.

He said that as of October 9, 2020, a total of 62,112 applications have been received by the various DILG field offices which is “a clear manifestation that there many Filipinos who are willing to help the government fight the unseen enemy.”