BY MARCHEL P. ESPINA
The city government of Bacolod will adopt a new contact tracing system that was developed by South Cotabato province, City Administrator Em Ang said yesterday.
She said the South Cotabato Covid-19 Contact Tracing System is more efficient, accurate, and precise.
Early last month, while the city was in the process of intensifying its contact tracing efforts, she came across an article about the contact tracing system developed by South Cotabato only, she said, adding that she shared it with the members of the Data Management Cluster and they agreed that it is an easy, accessible, and foolproof system.
Ang said they linked with the people who designed and developed the application and that Mayor Evelio Leonardia contacted South Cotabato Governor Reynaldo Tamayo Jr., who agreed to share the system with Bacolod for free.
“We plan to adopt the SC-CCTS as our online contact tracing system to record the movement of residents around Bacolod and elsewhere in the province and to easily locate people suspected of having had contacts with Covid-19 patients,” she said.
Under the system, a resident will have their own Quick Response code from the application that will be scanned whenever they go to establishments or offices.
When the city launches the system, establishments and offices will also be required to adopt the protocol and will prohibit people from entering their premises without the QR code.
She said this digital tracking system is easier compared to the current practice, where contact tracers need to physically go to the risk area.
Moreover, she said the system is foolproof since there are suspected patients who previously lied about their personal information.
Yesterday, Melody Joy Cosep of the South Cotabato provincial government’s Information and Communication Division virtually met with members of the Emergency Operations Center Task Force, she said.
Ang added that Cosep’s team also trained their Information Technology personnel on the technical aspect of the system.
“We plan to start using the system within the week. With this development, we hope to be able to gradually open our economy as we already have an effective tracking system in place,” she said.*
