Bohol Inter-Agency Task Force (BIATF) confirms its appeal to the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to continue funding for the contact tracers whose contracts expired on Dec. 2020, a report from the Philippine Information Agency reveals.
BIATF spokesperson Dr. Cesar Tomas Lopez confirmed that the task Force has appealed to the DILG to continue funding the more than 700 contact tracers, assigned to Bohol’s local government units (LGU), the report released on Friday, Jan. 29, 2021 bares.
Contact tracers hired by the DILG have really helped the municipal contact tracing teams in containing the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid) in Bohol.
The DILG-hired contact tracers were deployed to LGUs to track down individuals who came in close contact with persons later confirmed to be infected with the Covid virus.
Moreover, Lopez stressed the importance of proper contact tracing and data gathering in the province’s fight against the spread of the virus.
“The contact tracers’ salaries were funded under the DILG‘s Bayanihan Law budget, and the budget ran out, so we appealed to the DILG and the national government to continue the funding as they [contact tracers] form a crucial force in the disease control, surveillance and tracking,” Lopez said.