More than 10,000 contact tracers have been hired by the government following Bayanihan 2’s signing into law, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) has announced.
In a press release, the DILG said 10,136 new contact tracers have been hired nationwide.
Interior Secretary Eduardo Año expressed elation over applicants’ “great interest” in the government’s recruitment program.
He said 55,000 applicants had submitted requirements and of the number, 47,000 were already being processed by the DILG.
“We are expecting to receive more applications in the coming days,” he added.
The DILG announced the recruitment program after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Bayanihan 2 into law last Sept. 11, which consists of P140 billion in regular appropriations and P25.5 billion in standby funding.
The country aims to hire at least 50,000 contact tracers through its recruitment program to fulfill the “Magalong formula” of tracing 37 close contacts of one Covid patient up to the 3rd degree.
Under the DILG guidelines, the contact tracers would be paid at least P18,784 monthly in a contract of service status.
Contact tracers’ responsibilities include conducting interviews, profiling, performing public health risk assessment and daily monitoring of Covid-19 cases and identified close contacts. John Ezekiel J. Hirro