BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines — Contact tracing is crucial in identifying “pathways of contagion”.
This was the suggestion of third district Cong. Jose Francisco Benitez during an open forum he organized with business and private sectors to discuss concerns regarding the Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine.
Also attending the open forum were Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Deputy Implementer for Visayas Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Assistant Secretary Jonji Gonzales, and Department of Health Region 7 Chief Pathologist Mary Jean Loreche.
Feliciano gave the assurance that the “two week from now, we will start to gain ground”.
Earlier, Feliciano recommended using the Cebu as model for containing the contagion. He pointed out that Cebu City had earlier been like Bacolod with the rising number of cases.
But the city was able to bring down the number, and Bacolod could learn from Cebu’s best practices including setting up of emergency operations center, checking structures, harmonizing plans, and improving the capacity of the molecular labs.
Benitez had also earlier called for a “whole panoply” of strategies including varied testing strategies, such as a pooled RT-PCR test, randomized rapid test, as well as improving turnaround time for the results.
