PRESS RELEASE
Feb. 7, 2022
PR-22-02-011
MMDA, Metro Manila Mayors Confer Award to
DOLE Secretary Bello for Providing Contact Tracers for COVID-19 Response
The Metro Manila Council (MMC) acknowledged the efforts of Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III for providing nearly 6,000 contact tracers, boosting the government’s capacity to mitigate the further spread of COVID-19 infection in the National Capital Region (NCR), the country’s epicenter of the pandemic.
The MMC, by virtue of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Resolution No. 22-02, awarded a plaque of appreciation to Bello for his unqualified and full support to the National Capital Region by continuing to provide contact tracers for COVID-19 response.
“Early detection of cases, through contact tracing, is a vital step in mitigating the spread of the disease. Through relentless contact tracing, the government was able to effectively identify potential carriers of the virus and their contacts and prevent the spread of the virus,” said MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos.
“We are extending our utmost gratitude and appreciation to DOLE Secretary Bello for his selfless and magnanimous action for the hiring of contact tracers under its Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers or TUPAD Program (TUPAD) program and their deployment to the Metro LGUs,” said Abalos, who personally hand over the plaque of appreciation to Bello at the DOLE Building in Intramuros, Manila today.
The MMC said “contact tracers become all the more relevant not only in the field of contact tracing initiatives but equally important in the provision of meaningful assistance in home quarantine or isolation cases, implementation of minimum public health standards, vaccination, health promotion, and non-COVID health-related work.
“These additional contact tracers were of proven and invaluable assistance to the Metro Manila Local Government Units in the identification and detection of persons who were infected with or exposed to the COVID-19 virus in line with the implementation of the Prevent-Detect-Isolate-Treat-Reintegrate strategy of the government,” cited in the resolution, signed by Abalos and 17 Metro Manila mayors.
To be recalled, the MMDA, DOLE and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) entered into a Memorandum of Agreement for the employment of nearly 6,000 contact tracers for COVID-19, through the DOLE’s TUPAD Program, for deployment throughout the National Capital Region (NCR) in May 2021.
The MMC, composed of the 17 Metro Manila mayors, is the governing and policy-making body of the MMDA.
MMDA Chairman Benhur Abalos awards a plaque of appreciation to Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III for providing nearly 6,000 contact tracers, boosting the government’s capacity to mitigate the further spread of COVID-19 infection in the National Capital Region (NCR), the country’s epicenter of the pandemic.
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