Parañaque hires 100 contact tracers

MANILA, Philippines — The Parañaque government hired 100 additional contact tracers despite the significant drop in the number of COVID-19 cases, Mayor Edwin Olivarez said yesterday.

Olivarez said the contact tracers were hired by the city government after they passed the orientation on COVID-19 response such as profiling and identifying close contacts of infected individuals.

The contact tracers came from the city’s eight barangays and will be deployed in Districts 1 and 2 beginning this month.

Olivarez said the contact tracers would be working for 15 days and would be paid P537 per day.

He said the contact tracers would intensify the PDITR (prevent, detect, isolate, treat and reintegrate) strategy being implemented by the local government in bringing down COVID-19 cases.

As of Tuesday, Parañaque had 158 active cases of COVID-19. Of the number, 18 were new cases.

The total number of COVID-19 cases reached 37,492 with 36,597 recoveries and 737 deaths, according to the city Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit.

The barangays with the most number of active COVID-19 cases are Don Bosco with 38; San Isidro, 28; Merville, 16, and BF Homes with 13. Barangay Don Galo remained COVID-free as of Tuesday.

“We will focus on economic recovery by reopening more businesses, which will provide employment to residents,” Olivarez said.