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CEBU CITY, Philippines — From citizens staying idly in their houses during quarantine, police in Central Visayas is now planning to tap members of fraternities and sororities to help in contact tracing in communities.
“We are planning to talk with the fraternities and sororities if they could help as contact tracing volunteers so that their community service, in turn, will be a meaningful one,” said Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, director of Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO – 7), in a virtual press conference with reporters on Thursday, August 13.
Ferro said individuals belonging to fraternity and sorority groups ‘are of great help’ in complementing the government’s existing manpower dedicated to tracing possible patients of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in localities.
“They could be part of our information brigade so that we will be able to secure, monitor, and come up with decisive preventive measures against COVID-19,” he added.
Meanwhile, the top official of PRO-7 also announced that all police stations in highly urbanized cities in the region already had their own contact tracing teams.
“All police stations in highly urbanized cities have their own contact tracing operation centers, and these are all integrated into the regional contact tracing operation center,” said Ferro.
“Currently, we are also embarking in an effort to make stronger barangay-based contact tracing teams,” he added.
But despite these developments, Ferro said he stood by with his recommendation for Cebu City to remain under general community quarantine (GCQ).
It can be recalled that PRO -7 also raised the idea of possibly tapping the help of residents doing nothing at home, including ‘tsismosos and tsismosas’, to aid contact tracers, a new which eventually became viral, generating mixed reactions from netizens.
READ MORE: ‘Chismosas’ helpful in contact tracing, says PRO-7 chief
Police, however, in a follow-up statement clarified that they were aiming for ‘information brigades’ among private citizens, and not a ‘tsismoso brigade’. /dbs