IATF Visayas Deploys Swabbers for Contact Tracing in Cebu City

The first batch of 26 swabbers who will help in the contact tracing efforts of the city in its 80 barangays have been deployed by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID)-Visayas.

The swabbers will play a crucial role in the efforts against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), according to Melquiades Feliciano, Deputy Chief Implementer for the Visayas,

“Because we will have massive contact tracing, dadami ang isu-swab natin (we will be able to swab more). Before, we only had five contact tracing teams, so talagang nagkaroon ng (so we really had) backlog. Bibilis ang sistema natin ngayon (We will have a faster system now) because of your presence,” Feliciano said.

The 26 swabbers received training from the Department of health prior to meeting up with the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and contact tracing teams for proper coordination.

Deputy chief implementer for EOC in the city Councilor Joel Garganera, said the contact tracers together with the swabbers should be given ample information on who will be swabbed for timely results.

“Time is very vital here. The contact tracers should give the swabbers the list of persons to be swabbed at the soonest possible time,” Garganera said.

Apart from the plans for Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to hire 50,000 contact tracers to aid in testing in the various local government units (LGU’s), DILG will also provide support to the swabbers and contact tracers in the event they encounter difficulties in the barangay-level, especially in dealing with barangay officials, DILG Assistant Secretary for Public Safety, and Security Alexander Macario said.

“If there are uncooperative barangay officials, file an incident report so we can issue them a show cause order,” Macario said.

Meanwhile, Cebu City Mayor Edgar Labella said 80 teams of contact tracers started their training last June 30 to help the city’s target of 1,000 to 3,000 tests daily with additional help from the IATF to reach 6,000 daily tests. (GFB)