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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider DOH defends policy shift in contact tracing efforts

DOH defends policy shift in contact tracing efforts

Published Jan 13, 2022 08:26 pm

DOH

The Department of Health (DOH) has defended the policy shift on contact tracing, saying that the strategy is now “impractical” and that efforts should be more focused on “high-impact” activities such as vaccination.

“When there is widespread community transmission and it is sustained, it’s impractical to do contact tracing,” said DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III in a television interview on Thursday, Jan. 13.

Duque made the statement after DOH Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire on Wednesday, Jan. 13, said that at this point “wherein we already have community transmission, contact tracing is not recommended as a priority intervention.”

READ: DOH announces updated protocols for COVID-19 testing

“You’ll be wasting a lot of resources doing contact tracing when you know the cases are already on an upswing, accelerating, and more and more communities are being infected,” explained Duque.

The Health chief said that it is “more practical” to give contact tracers other tasks that can help in mitigating the spread of infection.

“The better and more practical thing to do is to use the contact tracer for other high impact activities,” said Duque.

“They will be much better put to more impactful activities like monitoring of individuals or families who are in home isolation or quarantine. They can help in symptom monitoring of those individuals in isolation or quarantine,” he said.

“And also for augmenting human resource within vaccination centers and also help in information education campaign for better compliance to minimum health standards,” he added.

Duque also underscored that the government will prioritize testing for medical workers (A1), senior citizens (A2), and those with comorbidities (A3).

“Because of limited testing and also because some of our laboratory technicians are either in isolation or quarantine--- so the testing output or capacity is reduced because of these circumstances,” he said.

“Therefore, the shift of policy is towards prioritizing the testing of A1, A2, and A3 groups within the priority framework,” he added.

Duque also highlighted the importance of vaccination and adherence to health protocols.

“I also want to take the opportunity to underscore for the general public, once symptoms are present, they should isolate... huwag ka na mag hintay na mag-test pa. If you are symptomatic, you isolate. If you are exposed to a person that tested positive, you also isolate,” he said.

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Contact tracing Department of Health (DOH) impractical high-impact activities priority intervention
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