The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Saturday announced that 35,345 contact tracers have been hired by the government since Bayanihan 2 was signed into law.
Of the total, 27,879 had already completed training and are now deployed nationwide.
Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya said in a Laging Handa briefing that about 65,000 have applied under the DILG’s recruitment program.
“We have processed some 57,743 applications at lumalabas nga po dito sa mga naproseso naming aplikasyon na marami namang kuwalipikado kaya nakapag-hire na po kami ng 35,345,” he said.
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.
The government targets to finish the hiring by next week.
“I would expect po na in the next week matatapos na po ng DILG iyong pagha-hire ng additional contact tracers at maidi-deploy na po namin sila sa lahat ng mga LGUs sa buong bansa,” Malaya said.
The Philippines has recorded 354,338 Covid-19 cases as of Saturday. John Ezekiel J. Hirro