Para ‘di magulo: House adopts resolution calling for unified contact tracing protocol

By Billy Begas

The House of Representatives has voted unanimously to adopt a resolution calling the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to establish a unified national contact tracing protocol.

House Resolution 1680, authored by Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and his allies underscored the importance of strengthening the government’s contact tracing efforts using the most effective and safest system to further boost its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The resolution said that contact tracing efforts in the country remain fragmented, with local governments and private establishments typically employing their own contact tracing systems which are not integrated into the government systems and overall database platform, resulting in numerous third parties offering disparate free contact tracing digital solutions, usually through mobile applications that require people to own smart phones, while some establishments continued to offer manual registration to non-smart phone users.

“Whereas, wide disparate applications and non-centralized data repository lead to mismanaged and redundant data outcomes, wasted unprocessed volume of data, cost duplication, limited data access, and less to non-effective solutions which did not meet the intended expected data reliability in contact tracing and raised doubts over efficacy and proper access to date collected which have been feared to have put to risk data privacy, confidentiality and cybersecurity laws in the mishandling and improper treatment of the volume of contact tracing data,” the resolution read.

IATF urged the public and the private sector to use the StaySafe.ph, a free digital application.

Data showed that only seven contacts per COVID-19 infected person were traced in the country, far from the ideal 1:37 for urban areas and 1:30 for rural areas.

“Whereas, there is therefore an immediate need for the review and modification of existing contact tracing system and the development of new and more user-friendly data interfaces to manage multiple data streams with seamless accuracy, interoperability and access and which hurdle the requirements of data privacy, confidentiality and cybersecurity laws, and security certification by the DICT.”

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)