The City of Mati’s contact tracing team is consist of only 6 personnel from the City Health Office, most of them women. They may be few, but their contribution to the ongoing war against the Covid-19 pandemic is considered as one of the most crucial in putting a stop to the spread of the virus.

April Kristine Son-Delagua heads the Mati IMT contact tracing team under the supervision of the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (Resu).

As per DILG memorandum, a contact tracing team is composed of the PNP, City Health, Bureau of Fire, CDRRMO, BHW, BHERTs, and a public safety officer.

April said that her mean and lean team takes charge of tracing people who got in close contact with confirmed Covid-19 patients within the 14-day period before his/her isolation.

A tough task, but with the availability of the latest technology April said their job is somewhat less daunting compared to say two decades ago.

April said that even before a patient is confirmed to be Covid-19 infected, they already make contact with the family, friends, officemates and other close contacts of the patient.

She said the close contacts are considered as the 1st generation of their contact tracing. April said that in a 14-day period, one Covid-19 patient could have at least made close contact with 10 persons.

Once the 1st generation contacts are identified, the tracing team will then look for the 2nd generation contacts. The 2nd generation contacts are those who made close contacts with the 1st generation contacts.

So if you do the math, one Covid-19 patient could have possibly infected 100 people within the 14-day period before isolation.

April said that is why they have to be very thorough when conducting their contact tracing so as to really identify as much as possible all of the 1st and 2nd generation contacts of the Covid-19 patient to put a stop on the spread of the virus.

April however admitted that her team usually meet some resistance from the contacts who does not want to cooperate with them, while some simply could not recall the personalities they made close contact with in the past days.

April also acknowledged the big help of the barangay health emergency response teams (BHERTs) in the contact tracing since they are the ones who are on the ground doing the actual monitoring and interview on the contacts.

Dr. Socorro Escalante, World Health Organization acting representative, earlier scored the “sluggish contact tracing efforts” in the country.

In Mati’s case though, April said that in 2 days they can already map out the 100 possible 1st and 2nd generation contacts of the Covid-19 patient.

She said these contacts are automatically considered as persons under monitoring (PUM) and will be asked to undergo a mandatory 14-day home quarantine as safety precaution.

With the recent confirmation of 12 Covid-19 patients from the towns of Banaybanay and San Isidro, April said that they expect the number of PUMs in the province to increase as much as 1,200.

She admitted that even though the patients are confined only at the two municipalities, there is a high possibility that their 1st and 2nd generation contacts could have already traveled outside of the two towns and could have infected more.

This is the reason why, April said, it is important for the people to be aware that being free from Covid-19 infection the past two months now should not make the people of Mati complacent since the threat of Covid-19 is still imminent. (CIO MATI)