Over 200 new healthcare workers on Tuesday started their training as contact tracers of Pasig City.

In a Facebook post, Mayor Vico Sotto said the city government is hiring more contact tracers to reinforce its current health workforce amid the spike in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.

Sotto recognized the efforts of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit's (CESU) staff on contact tracing during the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila.

However, he said the contact tracers have been exhausted given that the Covid-19 cases in the city have increased following the implementation of less strict general community quarantine (GCQ).

"Nung ECQ kinakaya pa ng masisipag nating CESU staff, kaso ngayong medyo tumaas ang bilang ng mga kaso pagka-GCQ, overworked na talaga sila (During the EQC, our CESU staff still able to manage the workload, but they are now overworked since the number of cases has slightly increased during GCQ)," Sotto said. "Kaya kailangan nila ng tulong upang mapaganda ang responde at pagmonitor natin ng mga kaso (So we need to help them to improve our responses and monitoring of the Covid-19 cases)."



Sotto said the new contact tracers are supposed to be deployed to perform a comprehensive survey and collect data needed in various barangays in Pasig City.

However, he said deployment has been temporarily postponed because of some health risks.

Meanwhile, the Pasig City government closed the wet market in Barangay Napico for a day, to clear the way for the targeted coronavirus testing of some 800 residents in the area.

The residents underwent swab testing for Covid-19 at the Napico Multi-purpose Hall on Wednesday, he said, noting that walk-ins are not accepted.

“Naka high-alert ang peace and order officers natin para bantayan ang mga dadaanan ng mga ite-test (Our peace and order officers are on high alert to guard the areas where those to be tested will pass),” Sotto said.

Sotto urged the public to pray for a good result so that localized EQC in some areas in Pasig will be lifted.


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