Members of Cebu City’s contact tracing team left for Bacolod City on Tuesday afternoon, September 1. | Photo Courtesy of the Cebu City PIO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Following the significant drop in cases of the coronavirus disease here, Cebu City’s contact tracers will now be sharing their expertise to counterparts in Bacolod City and Iloilo, where cases of the infection continue to increase.
The team that consists of medical experts led by Dr. Catherine Echevarre of the Cebu City Health Department and police personnel traveled to Bacolod City with Major General Melquiades Feliciano, the IATF deputy chief implementor in Cebu, earlier this Tuesday, September 1.
Police Captain Jefferson Sinfuego of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) said that they are tasked to help set up an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) there to monitor and identify new cases of the infection.
“Sasama kami nila Gen. Mel at nang IATF para i-present kung anong platform ang nagawa natin sa EOC (Emergency Operations Center) at kung anong meron tayo dito sa Cebu City. So, magbu-build ng EOC doon sa Bacolod and Iloilo comprises of doctors from their City Health, PNP and civilian intervention. So, kung anong nagawa natin sa Cebu City, yun din ang ituturo namin sa Bacolod and Iloilo,” Sinfuego told CDN Digital in an interview shortly before their scheduled trip on Tuesday afternoon.
(We are traveling with Gen. Mel and IATF [officials] to present our EOC set up and what we have done in Cebu City. We will help them establish an EOC in Bacolod and Iloilo that will comprise of doctors from their city health offices, PNP and civilians. We will share with them what we did in Cebu City.)
Sinfuego said that they will be staying in Bacolod for at least a week while Feliciano, who was in Cebu City for almost three months, may have to stay longer.
Earlier, Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong brought a team of contract tracers to help Cebu City managed the spread of the infection.
READ: Magalong: Cebu City’s contact tracing improving
In coordination with the police, City Hall later on trained more contact tracers to identify the close contacts of COVID-19 patients to give them the needed medical intervention.
Mayor Edgardo Labella credited the public’s cooperation, the conduct of extensive contact tracing, and the continuous implementation of quarantine measures for the drop in the city’s active cases which was at 635 as of Monday, August 31.
The city has recorded a total of 9, 634 cases of the infection since March.
READ: Cebu province overtakes Cebu City in number of active cases
Labella said that the city was prepared to share its best practices with other local government units. / dcb