NORMIN IATF ADVOCATES STAY SAFE APP TO LGUS, GENERAL PUBLIC

Cagayan de Oro City – The Region 10 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (R10 IATF-MEID) highly encourages local government units and the general public to use the country’s official contact tracing application – StaySafe.ph. 

This in response to the national government’s call to strengthen COVID-19 detection by unifying the contact tracing efforts nationwide due to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in the country. 

“We highly encourage the local government units to use the Stay Safe application in their localities and for the public to also download the app in their phones,” said DILG-10 Regional Director Arnel Agabe, who also chairs the R10 IATF-MEID, during the task force’s regular meeting on March 24. 

It has been reported by Director Sittie Rahma Alawi of Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)-10, that most LGUs in Northern Mindanao are not using the Stay Safe application given that it was not strictly implemented across the country. 

Pending the turn-over of the Stay Safe system from the developer, DILG was already identified to be the end-user and was tasked to roll out said system to the LGUs for full implementation. 

“Part of our efforts in containing and preventing the spread of the virus is to unify all of our efforts. By using the free Stay Safe application, we are complementing the work of our contact tracers and boosting our digital contact tracing,” RD Agabe added. 

For LGUs who have developed their own contact tracing system, like Cagayan de Oro City with its Higala App, they are required to integrate their application with that of StaySafe.ph. 

In addition, all LGUs, national government agencies, establishments and transportations will utilize one uniform quick response (QR) code on all entrances or visible spots.

‘Extensive’ Contact Tracing  

As outlined under the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) Resolution No. 102, LGUs are mandated to track down the close contacts even among suspect cases.  

“This time, our contact tracing is more extensive. Dili lang ang close contacts sa positive cases ang i-trace kung dili apil ang secondary contacts sa katong primary close contacts (Not only the close contacts of the COVID-19 positive patients should be identified but also the secondary contacts or the individuals exposed to the primary contacts),” RD Agabe pointed out. 

He also reminds the LGUs to ensure the functionality of their Barangay Health Emergency Response Teams (BHERTs) in ensuring that minimum public health standards are followed in their communities. 

He even urged them to come up with necessary penalties for individuals disobeying the minimum health standards. “Kini
para mapahinumdom sa tanan lumulupyo sa Rehiyon Diez nga kita seryoso. Despite the vaccine rollout, kaparte sa atong
pag-adapt sa new normal nga ipadayon ang pag-obserba sa minimum health standards,” he added. (DILG 10/LGCDD/Princess Jia Andriza Artajo)