The country's vocational school, TESDA, will soon offer training on contact-tracing to those who want to help the Philippines fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said Monday.
Authorities are ramping up contact-tracing to make sure that close contacts of COVID-19 patients are tested and isolated, The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority will start offering the course in September.
"We intend to initially train volunteers from local government units and large corporations as part of their contact-tracing strategies," TESDA deputy director general for partnerships and linkages Aniceto Bertiz III was quoted by the Inquirer.
Aspiring contact tracers should have at finished least Grade 10 — or 10 years of alternative learning system — to qualify for the 15-day blended learning program. TESDA teamed up with the Department of Health-Health Human Resources Development Bureau and medical experts to come up with the training standards.
In Pasay City, authorities tapped motorcycle taxi-hailing platform Angkas to boost its contact tracing efforts. Several riders will be trained. Angkas also offered free tranportation to the city's health workers, chief transport advocate George Royeca said.
