The Philippine National Police (PNP) has been tapped in the conduct of contact-tracing activities in various parts of the country as part of the government's efforts to boost the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The inclusion of policemen came due to the rising number of COVID-19 cases. On Friday alone, the Department of Health reported 7,103 cases, the highest ever recorded in a single day in the country.

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Undersecretary and spokesperson Jonathan Malaya said the government’s COVID-19 response will make it mandatory for the police officers in the various regions to accompany the contact tracing teams in a bid to expand the identification of possible coronavirus -infected persons using the so-called Magalong formula.

Under the (Baguio City mayor and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong) “Magalong formula 1 is to 30 is the desired ratio of contact tracers to population a target which is way off the current one is to seven ratio.

Malaya said they have requested 20 police officers with each regional police office assigned in one local government unit (LGU). In the National Capital Region (NCR), he said the police officers can make calls, do follow-ups and monitor remotely even if they are in the provinces.

The DILG official added that they also requested 100 contact tracers from the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), where 60 of them will be assigned in Quezon City and the remaining 40 in Pasay City.

In October last year, Quezon City contact tracers Jobelle Pamugas and Glizel Gascon confided that many households resent their presence at their gates for fear of discrimination from neighbors.

As foot soldiers against the spread of COVID-19, Pamugas and Gascon said that they face obstacles of rudeness, insults, even dog bites and cat scratches every day describing contact tracing to be daunting as one has to talk to each person, a COVID-positive person had contact with in the last 14 days.

Malaya said the DILG will only retain 15,000 of the 50,000 contact tracers hired last year stressing that it will no longer hire anymore at this time after the department’s budget was slashed for the current year.

Under the Bayanihan Act, Malaya explained that 50,000 contact tracers were hired in 2020 who were assigned in the LGUs nationwide.

He added that the reduced number of DILG contact tracers will be deployed in areas considered as COVID-19 hotspots as they would not be assigned in low risk localities anymore since the LGUs have their own contact tracing teams.

“So hindi naman po nasayang yung training nung ating mga contact tracers last year dahil around 15,000 of them ay narehire naman po and they are now being used extensively dito po sa Metro Manila at sa iba pang lugar na mataas ang COVID (Our training of the contact tracers last year did not go to waste since around 15,000 of them were rehired and are now being extensively used in Metro Mania and other areas with high COVID cases),’’ Malaya said.