Local officials can now easily conduct contact tracing of suspected COVID-19 cases and pinpoint areas where mass testing must be done through TanodCOVID, a tracing system developed by Filipino researchers.
With the use of TanodCOVID, people in the community will have means of reporting their symptoms to their local officials without fear of discrimination.
When used by a Local Government Unit (LGU), TanodCOVID will help the local officials and the Department of Health (DoH) in tracing possible and suspected COVID-19 cases and decide on areas where mass testing must be administered.
Interested LGUs should send a letter of intent to the project team to avail this service.
Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) executive director Dr. Jaime C. Montoya emphasized the important role of LGUs in early detection and tracing of the disease.
“LGUs can help even more through the use of TanodCOVID. This can build a knowledge base about your locality so that prevention, management and treatment on COVID19 can be improved,” he stressed
According to PCHRD, with the use of TanodCOVID, locals can send text messages to their LGU’s verified mobile number. Officials will then call concerned locals to verify the reports and ask for additional information which might help the DoH.
Specifically, the TanodCOVID will enable LGUs to access report summaries, visualization, mobile numbers and addresses of those who reported symptoms.
Once TanodCOVID is adopted, Dr. Regina Estuar, project leader of TanodCOVID, assures interested LGUs of their continuous technical support.
Developed by Ateneo Center for Computing Competency and Research (ACCCRe) of Ateneo de Manila University in collaboration with the University of the Philippines Manila – National Telehealth Center (UP-NTHC) and the DOH-Epidemiology Bureau and funded by the DOST-PCHRD, TanodCOVID is a self-reporting application included in the Feasibility Analysis of Syndromic Surveillance using Spatio-Temporal Epidemiological Modeler (FASSSTER), a web-based disease surveillance platform that uses deterministic compartmental modeling.
“The rapid development of research and technologies has been at the top of DOST’s priorities to fight this pandemic. With FASSSTER in place to assist our policymakers create evidence-based strategies, and TanodCOVID to engage our locals in self-reporting of symptoms for contact tracing, we are increasing our chances of saving more lives,” DoST Undersecretary for Research and Development Rowena Cristina Guevara said.
LGUs can email to their Letter of Intent to [email protected]. (Dhel Nazario)
