The Mega Contact Tracing Center will boost the City Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU) monitoring for COVID-19 contacts and further strengthen the city's COVID-19 response with its facilities and equipment similar to that of a call center set-up.
The local government also deploys 100 contact tracers, data encoders and disease surveillance officers – running a 24/7 shift to complement the contact tracing center.
Apart from this, a separate team of swab test schedulers and doctors are also integrated into its daily operations.
The team conducting COVID-19 swab tests will still be stationed at the Valenzuela City ALERT Center, and rescue teams for extraction of COVID-19 positive cases and active Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERT) support the COVID-19 tracing and monitoring of the City on the barangay level.
As Valenzuela City pioneers the use of technology in governance, the Mega Contact Tracing Center upholds a “contactless” COVID-19 contact tracing scheme as contact tracers are in-charge of all incoming and outgoing calls and queries through email. They are also to conduct calls to COVID-19 contacts with the objective of getting all the substantial information on their exposure including getting the number of household members.
Registered nurses, as disease surveillance officers, will be assigned on field work assisting and endorsing patients who need hospital referral.
Before the deployment, the Valenzuela City Health Office conducted a full day training and orientation to all contact tracers and data encoders making sure that the “credo” of a Valenzuelano Contact Tracer will be practiced. This includes proper guidelines on notification of exposure, verification, confidentiality and privacy, while also keeping in mind to be sympathetic at all times.
"Itong trabaho na 'to kelangan ng emosyon para makuha ang tamang impormasyon mula sa mga pasyente. Isipin niyo yung patient niyo ay kapamilya niyo. Kung paano niyo gusto tra-tuhin kung kayo ‘yung pasyente, ganoon ninyo sila tra-tuhin, (This job needs emotion for you to be able to get the right information from the patients. Think of the patient as your family member. You should treat your patient as you want to be treated)," Mayor REX Gatchalian shared during the orientation.
To recall, on March 19, Valenzuela City has since launched an automated contract tracing system at the early onset of the enhanced community quarantine. The Bantay COVID-19 software uses layers of the geographical information system (GIS) maps of the City and prompts for relationship and possible community transmission of the disease.
The software utilizes input and storage of its citizens, emergency numbers, reports and list of laboratories and has extensive details on a person’s travel history and information. This software is updated real-time, making seamless contact tracing possible with the use of effective data management through technology.
As part of Department of Health’s (DOH) protocol on COVID-19 case reporting, data is being submitted and updated at the COVID KAYA application which automates a data collection system for submission of COVID-19 case data reports in the country.
During the visit of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) last July 30, Valenzuela City’s COVID-19 Tracing Highlights were presented to the group for consultation and review of the City’s practices. As the City now targets to test 10% of the city population, the Mega Contact Tracing Center is expected to beef up the localized targeted mass testing of Valenzuela City.
“You [Valenzuela City] have a higher testing rate than most other LGUs. So keep it up and I loved that your goal is to do 10% of your population and we congratulate you for the resolution to do that, to achieve that target, and we are here to partner with you,” DOH Sec. Francisco Duque III said during the visit.
As of Aug. 16, the total number of RT-PCR test results of Valenzuela City is now at 18,614 out of the projected 2020 population of 664,613.
The City also records 1,335 active cases, 3,005 confirmed cases, recovered cases at 1,584 and number of deaths at 86 as of Aug.12, 2020. (PIA NCR)
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