About 90 teams of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) contact tracers have been deployed by the Quezon City government in its bid to track down all virus carriers in the city.
Aside from the 90 teams of field and phone contact tracers, the LGU also asked the assistance of 300 barangay contact tracers and 30 police personnel to boost their contact tracing efforts.
The city government also built contact tracing offices in Districts 3 and 6 to intensify the monitoring of suspected, probable, and confirmed cases in barangays.
Four more satellite offices will be set up soon in the remaining districts.
“Our goal is to stop the virus right in its track. We continuously modify and improve our strategies to make sure we slow the virus transmission within the city,” Mayor Joy Belmonte said.
Dr. Rolando Cruz, head of the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU), said identifying infection routes by going to the communities is "as equally important as finding treatment for COVID-19."
“By rebuilding connections to our communities, we’re able to track the disease and inform our residents of the proper precautions to take,” Cruz said.
He added that the strengthened community surveillance has led to the identification of numerous clustering cases and subsequent lockdowns in various areas.
“The job entails more than just calling patients and asking them questions. They are effective in gauging and telling us the real situation at the barangay level,” Cruz said.