Marikina mayor calls for data sharing among LGUs to improve battle vs COVID-19

MANILA-- Marikina City Mayor Marcelino Teodoro called for data sharing among local government units (LGUs) to improve the ground strategy against the transmission of the coronavirus.

Teodoro made the call on Monday as he noted that some individuals who test positive for COVID-19 in their city also mingled with people from other cities, making contact tracing more difficult.

"Marami po sa amin ay pupunta sa ibang lugar, co-mingling ho iyong tao eh. I think, there should also be data sharing among the LGUs," he said during a Palace press briefing.

(Many of our residents go to other areas and mingle with other people.)

"There should be a network of communities working together in testing and tracing," he added.

Local governments have played a more active role in the country's pandemic response strategy following the major easing of lockdowns in June, as they were given the power to impose localized community quarantines.

Cities and towns should cooperate in terms of testing and tracing, Teodoro said, given that inter-city travel is possible for workers. Neighboring cities could also soon share quarantine facilities, he dded.

"Iyong residente ng Marikina ay nagtatrabaho sa Makati, sa Taguig. So iyong aming testing ay makikita namin, mati-trace namin as a source of infection is from another locality. So we forward those information to the concerned locality," he said.

(A resident of Marikina works in Makati or Taguig, so in our testing, we trace the source of infection from another locality.)

The Philippines as of Sunday recorded 161,253 confirmed cases of COVID-19, of which, 46,002 are active.

• Tracking COVID-19 cases in the Philippines

Marikina City has its own molecular laboratory and offers free COVID-19 testing to its residents.