Quezon City urges private hospitals, labs to submit list of people tested for COVID-19
MANILA, Philippines — The government of Quezon City asked private hospitals and laboratories to submit the list of individuals who were tested for coronavirus disease to hasten its contact tracing efforts and slow the transmission of the virus in communities.
Dr. Rolly Cruz, the head of Quezon City’s Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, said the “line list” or the roster of people who were tested for COVID-19 is used as a basis in monitoring close contacts of probable and suspected cases and in informing them to isolate.
“We are requesting hospitals, laboratories, and other disease reporting units in QC to provide us with the line list as soon as they can, and on a regular basis,” Cruz said.
Cruz said contact tracing can be easily conducted if they have the line list on hand.
Last week, Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte wrote a letter to the Department of Health, saying incomplete information on coronavirus patients gathered by the agency was delaying the city’s contact tracing efforts.
“When data is incomplete and reported late, the response of the city suffers. Adding more contact tracers and facilities is futile if the data is too poor to be of any use. Good and timely information is key to overcoming this disease,” Belmonte said.
The Quezon City government opened satellite contact tracing offices in Districts 3 and 6 earlier this week to intensify the monitoring of suspected, probable and confirmed cases in communities.
It also formed 90 teams of field and phone contact tracers on top of 300 barangay contact tracers and 30 police personnel.
Quezon City has 13,381 confirmed cases, according to the latest data from the DOH. Of the figure, 7,513 are active cases. — Gaea Katreena Cabico with report from The STAR/Janvic Mateo
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Disclosure: Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which operates digital news outlet Philstar.com. This article was produced following editorial guidelines.
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