(Eagle News) — The Department of the Interior and Local Government on Friday, March 19, called on local government units to use the StaySafe.ph application instead of developing their own contact tracing systems.
In a statement, Interior Undersecretary Jonathan Malaya, also the department spokesperson, said “it will be easier and more cost-efficient for LGUs to just use StaySafe instead of buying their own.”
Besides, he said “we will soon fully implement the StaySafe application and we don’t want to complicate the situation any further.”
Malaya said the DILG “will conduct a workshop for all LGUs who have existing contact tracing systems so that these can be integrated with StaySafe.”
According to Malaya, the turnover to the DILG of the application from developer Multisys Technologies Corp. was already being finalized.
“Once we have a unified system, this will be a big boost to our digital contracting tracing efforts which will complement and assist in the work of our 255,000 contact tracers nationwide,” Malaya said.
The Philippines is battling a surge in COVID-19 cases, with the Octa research group predicting 11,000 daily COVID-19 cases by the end of March if the increase continues unabated.
The Department of Health has said the increase was due to increased mobility and the failure to follow minimum health protocols, exacerbated by the presence of COVID-19 virus variants which are said to be more transmissible.