Bacolod City has adopted a customized online application for contact tracing to enhance its response against the Covid-19 pandemic.
The “BaCTrac Contact Tracing System” that was launched Tuesday is a web-based and mobile-based app developed for the efficient and expeditious contact tracing of confirmed Covid-19 positive patients in the city, a press release from City Hall said.
The app was inspired by the South Cotabato Covid Contact Tracing System (SC-CCTS), which has proven helpful in data gathering amid local transmissions of the dreaded virus.
In replicating the SC-CCTS through BaCTrac, the city government will be able to record the movement of individuals around Bacolod and elsewhere in the province. This will allow the Emergency Operations Center Task Force to easily locate people suspected of having contact with Covid-19 patients, the press release said.
“By adopting this new technology, we are doing away with the use of manual registration in all the places that are often sources of contamination or infection. This is very much of help in our tracing activities,” IATF-Visayas chief implementer Mel Feliciano said.
To use the app, Bacolod City residents will be required to register online in the BaCTrac system. To register, one can visit www.bacolodcity.gov.ph and access the BaCTrac page.
Upon registration, an individual will be issued a BaCTrac card which contains his/her name, address, identification number, and a uniquely-assigned quick response (QR) code.
Business and government establishments will also be required to download the mobile app’s “CCTS Logger” on Google Store to be able to scan the BaCTrac cards, the press release said.
The cards will be used to sign in to a digital logbook, through scanning the QR code, upon entry into government premises or private establishments for the purpose of recording the date and time of visit.
On September 23, the Sangguniang Panlungsod quickly passed City Ordinance (CO) No. 941 to implement city-wide the BaCTrac System and provide for its guidelines. Mayor Evelio Leonardia approved the CO the following day.
The CO requires all business establishments and government offices to be part of the BaCTrac System while all residents and visitors are mandated to register themselves in it to be allowed entry into public establishments, the press release added.*
