A Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) insisted on Thursday, Aug. 26, that the Stay Safe app has enhanced the country’s contact tracing efforts amid the surge of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
This was in reaction to the comment of Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque who said that the application has no impact in contact tracing against COVID-19 infected persons.
In a news briefing, DILG Undersecretary Epimaco Densing downplayed the comment of Duque III, saying the Health secretary might not have been updated with the stay safe app registration which has continuously been expanded.
Densing pointed out that last July, the DOH COVID Documents Repository System (CDRS) bared that 150 confirmed COVID-19 infected individuals tried but were barred from entering the various establishments.
“Lumabas po nagwork yung ating stay safe (app). Hindi po sila (COVID-19 infected persons) pinapasok sa mga establishments na ito (This showed that stay safe works. They were not allowed entry in the establishments),’’ Densing said.
“As of today meron na ho tayong 6.4 million na nagrehistro na ating kababayan sa stay safe (app.). Meron na ho naggenerate ito (stay safe app) ng more or less 47 million na nagscan po ng kanilang pagikot sa mga establisyemento (As of today, there were 6.4 million people that registered in the stay safe. This also has generated more or less 47 million who scanned during their trips to the various establishments),’’ he added.
Densing maintained that this is one way to prevent the potential transmission of the virus as the Information Technology (IT) group is given the instruction to alert the DILG about the presence of a virus infected person attempting to enter an establishment.
After getting the information from the IT group, Densing said that the DILG in turn will then contact the concerned local government unit (LGU) that will restrict the movement of the said individual and will have him isolated and placed in a quarantine facility immediately. (Chito A. Chavez)