Malacañang said the Philippines, with 47,769 active Covid-19 cases as of Thursday, was falling behind in its contact tracing efforts.
In a virtual presser, Palace spokesman Harry Roque lamented the underutilization of tracing techniques such as the use of the StaySafe application.
“Importante iyong tracing. Talagang iyong tracing naguguluhan na po ako, nahihilo na ako lalung-lalo na dito sa StaySafe app. Hindi ko maintindihan kung bakit hindi pa natin ginagamit ito at matagal na pong na-launch namin ‘yan,” he said.
“So I would say that an area for tremendous improvement will be the tracing, the use of a tracing app at saka iyong pagtaas ng mga numero ng nati-trace dapat masunod po iyong sinasabi ni Mayor (Benjamin) Magalong na dapat mga at least 32 for every positive case po,” he added.
Last year, the government hired 50,000 contact tracers to intensify its tracing efforts.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government has said that more stringent contact tracing efforts within communities could lead to lower Covid-19 cases.
The country has recorded 607,048 Covid-19 cases as of March 11. John Ezekiel J. Hirro