DILG to hire 197 contact tracers for LGU Naga

CONTACT TRACERS. Mayor Nelson Legacion (at the middle) along with some of the 54 participants in the orientation-seminar for contact tracers organized by the Department of the Interior and Local Government. JBN/DENGMALATE/CEPPIO

NAGA CITY --- The city government of Naga and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in this city and Camarines Sur are staging here a 2-day orientation for contact tracers via zoom mobile app.

The activity, which is being held from October 6-7, this year, under the national government agency’s Contact Tracing Regional Roll-Out, aims to strengthen the operations of contact tracing as one of the complementary approaches being adopted to limit the spread of coronavirus disease 2019.

Hosted by LGU Naga, the webinar was held at the PSO Training Hall with 54 participants hired as contact tracers for LGU Naga and the municipal government of Canaman and Milaor from which they are going to receive orders and perform their mandated tasks.

DILG Provincial Director Melody Relucio said also participating in the video conferencing are the DILG in 35 Camarines Sur municipalities and the city of Iriga together with more than 300 would-be contact tracers who are to be dispatched to different towns.

“We are targeting 800 to 1,000 contact tracers for this project that is why we opt to duplicate this activity [orientation] by next week for another batch of new hirees,” she said.

The project is accepting applicants preferably graduates of Bachelor of Science in Criminology or any course in medical field.

Mayor Nelson Legacion said that after the orientation an initial number of 35 contact tracers will be assigned by the DILG to LGU Naga. He said the new recruits will beef up the 4 teams of contact tracers now working at the city’s Contact Tracing and Monitoring Center.

DILG City Director Lino Ruperto Boncodin said he is hoping that by the end of October this year, LGU Naga will finally be provided with 162 more contact tracers to make it 179.

“We are now in the process of completing the documents that are to be submitted by other applicants who qualified in the contact tracing job,” Boncodin said.