The local government of Caloocan City has started the contact tracing of persons who were present during the hostage taking incident in C-3 Road in Caloocan City on Friday night.
The Department of Interior and Local Government has ordered the conduct of contact tracing on the crowd present during the hostage taking in Caloocan City due to fears that it could be a super spreader event.
Barangay 14 chairman Efren Dela Cruz said they already started the contact tracing to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
"Halos lahat ng tao nagpuntahan yata dun, naki-usyoso lang dun sa hostage taking kaya po ngayon po ay minarapat po na ipatawag lahat ng mga nakakita roon para ma-trace namin lahat, para po maagapan nang hindi po kumalat ang Delta variant (I think almost everyone went there, they were just curious about the hostage taking, so now we are doing contact tracing to stop the spread of the Delta variant)," he said in an interview with GMA on Monday night.
City Administrator Oliver Hernandez said that they don't have an index case yet.
“No way kami to search (for) more kasi mga ano lang din yan, mga bystander na from other cities, d’un kami magkakaroon ng problema to contact trace sa iba pa na present during that time (We have no way to search for the others because some are bystanders from other cities, that's where we will have a problem, to trace those who were present during that time),” he said.
“Wala namang identified pa so far sa index case, so ibig sabihin, wala pang na-identify na positive pero para makasigurado, we will do antigen testing dun sa mga present po na mate-trace natin (We have not identified an index case so far, so that means, nothing has been identified as positive. But to be sure, we will do antigen testing on those who were present and whom we could trace)” he added.
The local government is expected to conduct tests on the the hostage victim, the suspect, more than 30 police personnel, and all the people present during the hostage taking.
Read more: Superspreader event? DILG orders contact tracing of crowd in Caloocan hostage taking