South Cotabato has developed a mobile application called “South Cotabato Covid19 Contact Tracing System (South Cotabato CCTS)” to be used by private and public establishments in the province.
South Cotabato Governor Tamayo Jr. said the contact-tracing app is part of the four criteria that need to be met before shifting South Cotabato to general community quarantine.
The 4 criteria for South Cotabato to be ready for a GCQ are:
- establishment of a COVID hospital
- complete supply of personal protective equipment for the front liners
- establishment of a COVID testing laboratory
- contact-tracing system
The provincial government through its component LGUs, except the city of Koronadal, plans to complete data collection in 75 days.
The application was developed to trace individuals who went into establishments and might have interacted with a COVID 19-positive case.
The governor instructed establishments to download the app on Google Play or Apple Store using smartphones. He also said that those who will not follow the system would face temporary closure.
This video contains information about the application released on May 8, 2020, by the Provincial Government of South Cotabato social media.
The province is currently conducting Rapid Household Profile Survey in all the Barangays where citizens need to register their complete name, birth date, and gender.
Gov. Tamayo Jr. assured establishments that data collected will not violate the Data Privacy Act. Details will be used for background check purposes for COVID-19 cases in the province.
Only the citizen’s ID number, establishment’s ID number, date, and time an individual came in would be logged into the server of the South Cotabato Covid19 Contact Tracing System.
Governor Tamayo also explained that the ID number will only be linked to the database with the actual name if needed by the Integrated Provincial Health Office for contact-tracing. Linking the ID number with the database is password protected.
The provincial government will also distribute Citizen’s ID with a QR Code that they can use upon entering establishments. The Citizen’s ID will also serve as the quarantine pass.
“With or without a cellular phone, for as long as that person carries the individual quarantine pass issued by the provincial government, he can participate in the tracking system,” the provincial leader said.
The national government is using the contact tracing system of StaySafe.ph, approved and promoted by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
The University of the Philippines Cebu also developed a web-based application called CoVcheck to collect useful data from COVID-19 cases or potential cases of infection.
Project Aedes, the Filipino champions of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, is also involved in the global Coronatracker initiative.
SEND CHEERS in the comments below to the people of South Cotabato for their initiative to set up their own COVID-19 tracing system.
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