BACOLOD CITY - The Bacolod City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) will be implementing a system similar to the South Cotabato coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Contact Tracing System (SC-CCTS) to further intensify its contact tracing operations starting next week.

City Administrator and EOC Executive Director Em Ang said the adopted system will be called “Bacolod City COVID-19 Contact Tracing (BaC-Trac).”

Ang said the city will be adopting the SC-CCTS as its online contact tracing system to record the movement of residents around Bacolod and elsewhere in Negros Occidental. “This is to easily locate people suspected of having had contacts with COVID-19 patients,” she added.

BaC-Trac is a localized web-based and mobile-based application developed for the efficient and expeditious contact tracing of confirmed COVID-19 positive patients initiated.

Bacolod residents will be issued a BaC-Trac card, which will bear the holder’s name, address, identification number and a uniquely-assigned Quick Response (QR) code through online registration.

Those who do not reside in Bacolod and may have temporary personal or business transactions in the city, or who may have to report for work daily, will be issued BaC-Trac visitor’s cards.

The cards will serve as a digital logbook when entering government premises or private establishments for the purpose of recording the date and time of entry of visit through scanning of the QR code upon entry. 

Business and government establishments will be required to download the mobile application CCTS Logger on Google store to be able to scan BaC-Trac cards.

In case of failure of any government office or private establishment or public utility vehicle operator to register in the BaC-Trac within 15 days from the effectivity of the ordinance, scan all BaC-Trac Cards of clients or visitors, or maintain a manual logbook shall be sanctioned accordingly.

The idea came after Ang saw an online article last month about the contact tracing system developed in South Cotabato, which was easy, accessible and fool-proof system.

“We started linking with the people who designed and developed the app,” Ang said, adding that Mayor Evelio Leonardia immediately contacted South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., who readily agreed to share the system with Bacolod.

The EOC Task Force invited Melody Joy Cosep of the Information and Communications Division of the South Cotabato Provincial Government's for a virtual meeting last Tuesday.

The next day, Mike Sonza Galang, IT officer of South Cotabato provincial government, then conducted a technical orientation and showed how to obtain the BaC-Trac card through online registration and how to install CCTS Logger for private and government establishments.

 “Barring any delays, we plan to start using the SC-CCTS within the week. With this development, we hope to be able to gradually open our economy as we already have an effective tracking system in place,” Ang said.

Meanwhile, the City Council has approved on third and final reading last Wednesday City Ordinance No. 941, authored by Councilor Lady Gles Pallen, that provides for the implementation of COVID-19 contact tracing system of Bacolod City.

This ordinance shall cover all business establishments, government offices, residents, and visitors within the territorial jurisdiction of Bacolod City, to include public utilities and spaces, such as but not limited to, public markets, public terminals and public transport.