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Here’s How the Municipality of La Trinidad Conduct Contact Tracing




August 7, 2020 – the Municipality of La Trinidad, Office of the Municipal Mayor has made public their La Trinidad Contact Tracing Procedure which is provided by Dr. Genevieve W. Degay, MHSO and is signed by the Municipal Mayor Romeo Salda.

The said contact tracing procedure involves coordination between and among the Municipality and the sixteen (16) Barangays.

The La Trinidad Contact Tracing Procedure

Here’s how the said procedure goes as stated in the public announcement:

  1. It immediately commences upon information given by the Provincial Health Office (PHO) of the names, cell number/s, and Barangay of (a) positive case/s.
  2. This information is then forwarded to the concerned Barangay Health Emergency Response Team (BHERT)/Contact Tracers.
  3. Assigned BHERT/Contact tracer, particularly the nurse assigned in affected Barangay, will log and inform of the result to the identified case if the swab was done by the Municipal Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (MESU) – LT.
    • However, if swabbing was done by other institutions, the patient must be informed by the said institution prior to coordinating for transport and contact tracing.
  4. Transport will be arranged for hospital admission (c/o Municipal Health Services Office [MHSO] Transport and Disinfection Group).
  5. While transport is being arranged and/or once the patient is settled at the hospital, contact tracing is being done simultaneously by phone.
  6. Once travel diary and contact line lists are established, area of said positive and the places that were visited by the latter will be put on lockdown – Targeted, Whole/Portion of Sitio or Barangay, as the case may be – to facilitate further contact tracing and disinfection of area.
  7. Identified direct contacts are immediately advised to undergo Home Quarantine, awaiting schedule of swab to be conducted usually within 5-7 days onwards from the day of exposure to the positive case.
  8. Swabbers from the MESU-MHSO LT clad in full PPE will then go to their identified home address/es to collect the OPS specimen to be processed for RT- PCR at BGHMC lab.
    • Results usually come out after 2-3 days, unlike before which was 2 weeks or more.
  9. BHERT/s monitoring of direct contacts starts once identified.
  10. LT has piloted a system on the online mapping of said contacts. Data of said direct and secondary contacts will be linked to an app to easily identify areas for possible lockdown using initial data from contact tracers in coordination with the concerned Punong Barangay/s.
    • Available maps using GIS or Google Earth & geographical information from interviews are being utilized to locate initially identified addresses.
  11. For contacts who hesitate to give information /those hard to locate/can’t be located, the uniformed personnel (PNP, BFP, CIDG) will be tapped and will step in to continue the contact tracing.

Working and Proven Strategy of LT

It has also been revealed on the announcement that based on their previous experiences, once various people call and get involved with said identified positive, they usually hesitate to cooperate. Thus, their 1st line contact tracers are health personnel assisted by BHERTs.

According to Mayor Salda, letting the Health Personnel/BHERTS be the 1st line contact tracers themselves is a working and proven strategy for LT’s contact tracing team to sustain the trust and confidence of said individuals.

Reminders to the Public

The public is being reminded to remain vigilant, stay at home, and observe minimum public health standards such as:

  • Regular and thorough hand washing
  • Proper wearing of masks (mouth and nose)
  • Physical distancing

For More News and Updates

Keep up with the latest news and updates about Baguio City and Beyond! To see more of our content, drop by our Baguio City Guide website on a daily basis or simply like and follow our official Baguio City Guide Facebook page.

SOURCE

Mayor’s Office – La Trinidad

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