Palace to have DICT explain if StaySafe app is of any use
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang wants the Department of Information and Communications Technology to explain why the health department thinks that the StaySafe application has not helped COVID-19 contact-tracing efforts much.
StaySafe was designed to unify the contact-tracing efforts in the Philippines and was made mandatory by the national government as early as last December .
Data collected through the application will be linked to the health department's surveillance and contact tracing platform COVID Kaya or the COVID-19 document repository system.
However, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told senators Wednesday that the application has had almost no impact on contact tracing, which is among the strategies against the spread of COVID-19 and for the quick treatment of those who have been infected by or exposed to COVID-19 patients.
"We will ask the DICT to explain why Secretary Duque made such a conclusion," presidential spokesman Harry Roque said at a press briefing Thursday.
"In any event, that's a cause for concern for the Palace because we know that automation is very important in contact tracing," he added.
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Earlier this year, Baguio City mayor and contact tracing czar Benjamin Magalong described contract tracing as the "weakest link" in the government's response to COVID-19.
The interior department, however, has claimed that the weakest link lies in prevention, pointing to the arrests of individuals over supposed violaions of minimum health standards. The Philippine National Police is part of the interior department.
Last March, the interior department asked local governments to stop developing their own contact tracing systems and use Stay Safe instead.
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