ILOILO City – The Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) in is hiring 3,306 contact tracers to be deployed to various local government units (LGUs) in Western Visayas.
Juan Jovan Ingeniero, director of DILG Region 6, told Panay News these contact tracers would help ramp up contact tracing efforts in the region as it is seen to be effective in mitigating the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
They would be tasked to conduct case interviews, profiling and initial public health risk assessment of COVID-19 cases and their identified close contacts.
“Ang trabaho po nila sa LGUs. Ibig sabihin mag-deploy kami ng contact tracers na maging part ng existing contract tracing system ng mga LGUs,” said Ingeniero.
Prospective contact tracers will undergo training by the last week of September.
Applicants need to have a bachelor’s degree relevant to the job, preferably on allied medical courses and criminology.
They must be skilled in data gathering, research and documentation; must be able to interview COVID-19 cases and close contacts to gather data on travel history and conduct health assessments; must possess the ability to advocate public health education messages; and must have an investigative capability.
Background training is not required.
Interested applicants should submit a letter of intent, personal data sheet, National Bureau of Investigation clearance, and drug test result. These documents should be emailed to concerned DILG provincial or city offices.
Those who will be hired will serve for four months with a monthly salary of P18,784 (Salary Grade 9).
Interested applicants may send their application to following email addresses:
* Aklan – dilgr6.aklan@gmail.com
* Antique – dilgr6.antique@gmail.com
* Capiz – dilgr6.capiz@gmail.com
* Guimaras – dilgr6.guimaras@gmail.com
* Iloilo – dilgr6.iloilo@gmail.com
* Negros Occidental – dilgr6.negrosoccidental@gmail.com
* Bacolod City – dilgr6.bacolodcity@gmail.com
* Iloilo City – dilgr6.iloilocity@gmail.com
As of Sept. 1, Western Visayas had 566 contact tracing teams composed of 6,258 tracers.
However, only roughly half of these tracers (3,321) have completed their training.
The region needs 3,912 more contract tracers.
The minimum standard ratio for contract tracers is one personnel for every 800 population.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) in an interim guide issued on May 10, 2020, contact tracing would be effective if countries must have adequate capacity to test suspect cases in a timely manner.
Where this is not possible, it said, testing and contact tracing strategies may instead focus on specific high-risk settings with vulnerable individuals, such as hospitals, care homes, or other closed settings (e.g. dormitories).
WHO generally defines a contact as anyone with the following exposures to a COVID-19 case, from two days before to 14 days after the case’s onset of illness:
* being within one meter of a COVID-19 case for more than 15 minutes
* direct physical contact with a COVID-19 case
* providing direct care for patients with COVID-19 disease without using proper personal protective equipment./PN
