Baguio shares best practices with Cebu

CEBU, Philippines —  The team of Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong arrived in Cebu City yesterday to help in improving the city's contact tracing system and to share their best practices to combat the transmission of the coronavirus.

“We are here to train the people of Cebu, selected people of Cebu. We are not here to change the entire system. We are not here to implement something. We are here to train people, to enhance their capacity in the aspect of contact tracing,” said Magalong.

“Ayaw po naming idikta na eto po yung sistemang maganda. Gusto lang po naming i-share sa kanila yung amin pong best practice sa Syudad ng Baguio at sa Cordillera," he added.

Magalong said it is up to Mayor Edgardo Labella on how to implement the system that they are going to impart to them.

“What is important is we will be able to effectively train people on the various technologies and system that we are now applying in contact tracing, which is particularly what we are applying in the City of Baguio and other municipalities in the Cordillera Region,” said Magalong.

Baguio’s best practices

Magalong said Baguio City's system has two major components -- cognitive investigative scheme and COVID-19 E System, which has three components namely data collection tool, geographical information system (GIS) platform, and analytical tool.

He brought with him six trainers who are experts in the area of GIS and link analyzing. They will be staying in Cebu City for two and a half days.

He said they will train the core group basically composed of health workers, doctors and nurses, and investigators from the Philippine National Police and probably from other law enforcement agencies.

Although they will not be able to impart thoroughly on the aspect of the technology in just two days, Magalong disclosed that one member of his team will have to stay behind for the next two weeks to ensure that everybody is well-versed or has understood the different types of technology to be applied in contact tracing.

Magalong also said that it is better for the city to have more teams to be deployed for contact tracing.

Challenges

Cebu City currently has 35 teams composed of five members each.

“Looking at the present number of cases sa Cebu City, definitely 35 teams is not enough. But I heard there are many more teams that are being formed to augment the existing 35 teams,” said Magalong.

“The more teams that we have, that we can deploy for contact tracing, the better. Yun naman ang basic principle ng contact tracing. Di mo pwedeng sabihin dito na baka sumobra tayo sa number. The more, the better... If you have the resources to hire more teams, then I would really recommend that,” he added.

Magalong said contact tracing is one of the most stressful strategies in containing the virus.

He said that one team should be dedicated to one or two cases only because if a team will be provided with three cases or more, it will be overwhelmed.

Citing their practice in Baguio, Magalong said one team comprises of one doctor or nurse and one investigator.

“In the City of Baguio, with five people we can actually work on two cases. Dati rati ang isang team namin, dedicated sa isang case or two cases, very extraordinary na yung they will cover the third case,” he said.

“One particular case, ilang contacts nyan. We're not only talking about 10 contacts. We're not talking about 20 contacts. In one particular case, we were able to determine first level contacts as much as 153. So kung susundan mo lahat yan, isipin mo nalang ma-ooverwhelm yung isang team mo,” he added.

More contact tracers

Labella, for his part, said Cebu City is planning to have additional contact tracing teams.

“As much as possible we endeavor to have at least 80 to cover all the 80 barangays with five members for each team. Hopefully we can reach that idea,” he said.

Magalong also said that expanded testing, strengthened contact tracing capability, and responsible behavior are important weapons in the fight against the virus.

“Dapat ang tao na mismo ang bagohin na nila yung kanilang sarili. Hindi lang eto sa Cebu. Sa lahat ng lokalidad sa ating buong bansa, it's about time that people have to embrace the new normal,” he said.

“The only way to do that is to give emphasis on these two words- responsible behavior. Sana yung ating mga tao isipin nila palagi yung word na disiplina muna. Kailangan natin yung kanilang kooperasyon,” he added.

Police to be trained

Police Regional Office-7 personnel will undergo training with Magalong’s team.

“He will be here with us, to train our people on contact tracing and he it will be participated by the members Cebu City Police and other PNP members in Central Visayas, to include members of the armed forces and of course our health workers from the government of Cebu,” PRO-7 Director Albert Ignatius Ferro told reporters yesterday.

Ferro is calling for volunteers to help the police in their contact tracing initiative.

“Atong mga Sugboanons, please help us... if you could volunteer to be with your law enforcers in the City of Cebu to help us on massive encoding and data gathering,” he said.- Iriz Hazel M. Mascardo, JMD (FREEMAN)