Contact tracing trainers sent to Western Visayas

The Police Regional Office (PRO) in Central Visayas has sent two teams to Western Visayas to conduct training to intensify coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) contact tracing in the region, the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) announced today.

This came after Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Secretary Michael Lloyd Dino promised to the officials in Region 6 the trainers, noting that contact tracing plays a vital role in containing the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

The decision also came as Western Visayas has been experiencing a spike in Covid-19 cases similar to what Central Visayas went through about two months ago.

Brig. Gen. Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO-7 regional director, said they assigned the two teams to help with the Covid-19 response in the region.

Ferro said the two teams, including a seven-man team from Regional Intelligence Division-7 led by Lt. Col. Bobby Lingbawan and a three-man team from Cebu City Police Office first conducted contact tracing training in Bacolod City.

A total of 190 individuals graduated from the contact tracing course on Sept. 3 until Sept. 6 in Bacolod.

Those who completed the training came from PRO-6, Provincial Health Office, Bacolod City Health Office, Bureau of Fire Protection-6 and the 303rd Infantry Brigade.

“We all went there to voluntarily help our Police Regional Office-6 to have their contact tracing established because we believe that the contact tracing teams we established in Region 6 are a game-changer for having a manageable level of Covid-19 confirmed cases,” Ferro said in an OPAV statement.

The same team is set to do another contact tracing training in Iloilo City.

Ferro added that the best practices and lessons learned in Cebu City are being applied in Western Visayas.

“For me this is a good Bayanihan in motion, meaning we should be helping the fellow Visayas Island unit and we have shared with them our tracing manual, a first in the country, produced here in PRO-7,” he said.

The training manual was produced out of the combined teachings of Baguio City Mayor and the country’s contact tracing czar Benjie Magalong and the Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Contact Tracing Course.

Ferro described the Johns Hopkins Covid-19 Contact Tracing Course as a “very” comprehensive and very systematic way of contact tracing.

Ferro said in Central Visayas alone, 9,543 individuals, including himself, have been trained to specialize in the contact tracing for Covid-19.

“We should heal as one, so we help as one Visayas,” he said on extending help to the other regions in the Visayas in fighting Covid-19.

Ferro also thanked Dino and OPAV for its continued support to the security cluster during this pandemic.*