The Philippine Department of Labor expands its budget to extend the mandate of contact tracers, and the Philippine police are on standby

The Philippine Department of Labor and Employment (DFID) is tightening its belt and working to extend the tenure of the contact tracers it employs in response to the current threat posed by the coronavirus's highly contagious Delta variant.

Philippine Labor Minister Silvestre Bello III recently revealed that they extended the mandates of some 5,700 contact tracers for up to two months, for which the agency will spend 200 million pesos.

He said at a virtual press conference: "This will cut our budget significantly, but then again, there is a great need for contact tracers in Metro Manila. ”

The contact tracers were hired at the end of April under the Philippine Department of Labor's "Our Employment Assistance" vulnerable/displaced workers program.

Bello said the mayors of Metro Manila, through Benhur Abalos, chairman of the Metro Manila Development Committee, asked the Labor Department over the weekend to extend the original three-month term of contact tracers for another three months.

He then consulted with the director in charge of our employment assistance program and the finance officer at the Department of Labor, he said, "It's hard to do given our budget, but if need because, we'll do it." ”

"I said, yes, we need to do that, President Ben Hul Arbalos himself made a request, and it was hard to refuse him, especially since the local executives in the national capital needed it when this damn Delta variant came in," he said. ”

Bello said: "So we really have to help our local executives... I said, Sir, I can still extend it, but not for three months, and I will try to give you two months, and Chairman Abalos accepted the offer. ”

The salary per contact tracer is PHP 16,000 per month, and the Philippine Department of Labor and Employment has previously allocated P296 million to workers' wages for the first three months.

The Philippine National Police also said on Wednesday, July 21, that it was ready to help with contact tracing during the confirmation of cases and deaths associated with the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar, head of the Philippine National Police, said some police personnel had previously received contact tracing training that could be used as the government planned to step up efforts to find all those with close contact with the Delta variant.

The Philippine Department of Health said there are 8 active cases of Delta variants in the country. Contacts are currently being traced to determine which people have had direct contact with patients infected with the variant, which is believed to be more contagious.

"We will coordinate with the Ministry of the Interior and Local Government and the Ministry of Health to determine how many additional contact tracers are needed," Elekzar said. ”

Recently, due to the threat of a variant of the coronavirus Delta, Elezar ordered the relevant police units to prepare for the worst that could happen.

He also called on the public to actively cooperate and strictly abide by the minimum public health safety standards and isolation procedures to avoid contracting COVID-19.