The Davao del Norte Nor COVID19 Contact Tracing System (DCCTS) and the ‘no QR Code, no transaction’ policy began last week. The Governor, Edwin I. Jubahib, announced the implementation through Memorandum Order No. 17 signed on 14 August.
He noted that all government offices and selected private establishments identified by the local government units (LGUs) within their locality should adopt and use the DCCTS in their respective establishments, the memorandum states. This means each person entering an establishment shall bring their QR Code and pass through the QR Code scanning while those without QR codes will not be given entry and will be advised to register for one.
Earlier, the Municipality of Asuncion was the first to follow and partially implement the QR codes after conducting the Monday convocation ceremony. The City of Panabo is said to follow suit later this afternoon as well.
Meanwhile, the municipality of San Isidro conducted QR code scanning barangay halls of Igangon, Sawata, Sto. Nino, Sabangan; at the entrance of the Municipal Hall Building and the Municipal Health Office. The use of QR codes is intended to bring efficiency in contact tracing in case of transmission. Through this, the COVID19 Task Force will be able to locate the travel history of an infected person and identify those who may have been in close contact or exposed to that person.
In the past couple of months, the LGUs in the province have spent time registering residents and distributing QR codes. LGUs around the country have been scaling-up contact tracing capabilities.
The Department of Health (DOH)-10 recently held a training on contact tracing with contact tracing czar, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to enhance Northern Mindanao’s contact tracing facilities to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
The Mayor shared Bagui City’s best practices and sagacity in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting contact tracing as a critical tool in eliminating COVID-19 as he gave analytical, cognitive, and interpersonal approaches in investigating potential suspected cases. He also presented areas of improvement for the region’s contact tracers like raising the figures of individuals being tracked.
For now, it is one is to four. The department intends to raise the numbers of people being contact-traced, one is to thirty or thirty-seven per patient.
In pointing out the weak areas and introducing new innovations, the contact tracing czar also encouraged seamless collaboration between government agencies for the utilisation of each department’s forte as crucial for a more harmonised and streamlined strategy in contact tracing.
There needs to be a collaboration between the Philippine National Police and the health office. The best practices in Northern Mindanao should be replicated by the other regions, he added. The RIATF for COVID-19 has campaigned to accelerate and establish more testing laboratories. The department also has its movement to economic recovery here from the Northern Mindanao task force economic cluster that is engaged with the Regional Chamber of Commerce to implement the regional economic plan. The city in Cagayan De Oro was also the first to implement an anti-discrimination ordinance for COVID-19, he said.
