BAGUIO CITY (PIA) — Mayor Benjamin Magalong led a delegation from the city government to Cebu City to share the local government unit’s best practices on the management and control of the COVID-19.
Magalong together with two police officers of the Baguio City Police Office and two technical staff of the Management of Information Technology Division of the city government traveled to share to the Cebu City LGU’s medical and police teams the contact tracing system that helped Baguio City track and contain transmission of the virus.
Cebu City is currently the epicenter of the COVID-19 in the country, and the only area under enhanced community quarantine. On July 5, Cebu City has reached the 6,142 cases within three and a half months since March 2020 making it the local government unit with the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Police Regional Office–7 Regional Director PBrig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro personally sought the help of Magalong, his former boss in the PNP, to share the technology instrumental in controlling Baguio’s COVID-19 cases.
Magalong said that they already conducted online sessions or webinar on the contact tracing system with the Cebu City LGU and the Police Regional Office – 7 but there is a need to bring the technology to a face-to-face or classroom style instruction for them to really grasp and understand it.
The mayor said that the team would stay in Cebu City in the next two weeks but he came back on Thursday to deal with the affairs of the city. He assured that upon arrival in the city, he undertook the RT-PCR tests and went on quarantine while waiting for the results of the test.
Baguio City’s extensive contact tracing system and technology developed by Magalong and the city government of Baguio involves cognitive interviewing skills and use of technology which is a powerful tool in analyzing data.
The system’s conceptual framework, according to a release by the Public Information Office, involves identification or detection of the source and possible sources of infection; isolation of these persons; testing; and tracing of the close and remote contacts for quarantine, testing, disinfection and medical protocols. It also involves convincing patients to disclose their identities to help in contact tracing which is also crucial as full disclosure can help alert contacts and cut down tracing time and resources.
Prior to Cebu City, Baguio City already shared the technology to its neighboring towns– La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay and other LGUs in the Cordillera region. Zamboanga has also requested to be trained on the contact tracing system of Baguio City. **By Redjie Melvic M. Cawis, PIA
