Extend services of Covid-19 contact tracers

ZAMBOANGA MAYOR Beng Climaco said there is a need to extend the services of local Covid-19 contact tracers as the local government continues to battle the spread of the deadly respiratory disease, especially now that there emerges a new strain of coronavirus in at least 20 countries.

Climaco said she wrote and asked the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to extend the services of contact tracers and other Covid-related personnel until December 2021. 

In her letter dated December 22 to DOH Secretary Francisco Duque and DILG Secretary Eduardo Año, Climaco said the invaluable services of the nurses and contact tracers are crucial to Zamboanga’s sustained effort in battling the spread of the Covid-19. 

Zamboanga City has over 100 active Covid cases. 

Climaco, who heads the local Covid-19 task force, said one of their challenges has always been the shortage of healthcare workers, as well as effective contact tracing. 

“Our country is still suffering from Covid-19 pandemic and while it is true that our country is slowly opening up the economy with concomitant increased of people mobility, the virus is still here and its threat to our health and safety is ever present.

Thus, the need to extend the services of Covid-related personnel until December 2021,” the mayor emphasized in her letter. 

But despite the hardship of the contact tracers, the DILG has failed to release their salaries. The contact tracers even sought the help of Climaco in appealing to the DILG for the release of their meager salaries despite the grave risk they undergo in doing their jobs.

Climaco personally requested the DILG to expedite the release of salaries of contact tracers deployed here. 

Ginagene Uy, the DILG City Director, explained that the delay in the submission of administrative requirements such as the tax identification number and the ATM account numbers from the Land Bank of the Philippines and some discrepancies in the daily time record and accomplishment reports by the contact tracers. 

The mayor said she spoke with Paisal Abutazil, the DILG regional director, and told him the concerns of contact tracers. Climaco said she was told that the DILG is now processing the salaries of contact tracers, not only those assigned here, but in the entire Zamboanga Peninsula. 

“Director Abutazil sought for understanding because they have to process over 3,000 documents (for the salaries),” Climaco said, adding, in Zamboanga City alone, the DILG hired only 656 contact tracers to help the local government track down people who have contacts with Covid-19 patients or those positive for the deadly respiratory virus. 

Climaco has repeatedly expressed her gratitude to the contact tracers and commended them for their dedication in helping the City Health Office. (Zamboanga Post)

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