‘LIKE HUNTING CRIMINALS’: PNP chief explains contact tracing method

By Jennifer P. Rendon

 

Philippine National Police chief General Archie Francisco Gamboa defended plans for state security forces to go house-to-house in search of mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 patients who are under home quarantine.

Gamboa, who visited the Police Regional Office (PRO)-6 in Iloilo City on Wednesday, likened the move to finding criminals.

Citing Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, he said that policemen will not just be looking for probable or suspected COVID-19 cases.

Magalong, who used to head the PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), was earlier appointed as contact tracing czar of the national task force on COVID-19.

“It requires cognitive interview or cognitive investigation. Ang purpose kasi nito para kang naghahanap ng kriminal at nahanap mo na yung mga kriminal at hanapin mo rin kung sino ang kakuntsaba nya and these are the skills of the investigators in the PNP kasi sanay sila ng ganun,” Gamboa said.

The country’s top cop made the comparison when asked on how they would go about with contact tracing.

He clarified that going house-to-house is just one thing. But mainly, they would focus on interviewing patients and their contacts.

“They would fill up different fields. Pero ang pag-fill up ng data nun can only be done by those who are trained in cognitive interview or investigation para ma-fill up nya objectively ang mga dun,” he said, referring to the system and contact tracing strategies adopted by Magalong to fight the Covid-19 spread in Baguio City and the Cordillera region.

“From there, other than the linkages na maabot hanggang doon sa babà, hanggang sa doon sa pinaka-last na possible PUI (Person under Investigation), possible PUM or probable suspects. Other than that, meron din syang timeline kung kelan sila nagkaroon ng contract,” Gamboa said.

The timeframe would also be included in the analytics.

Gamboa said that on Thursday and Friday, Magalong will be conducting a training with selected PNP personnel Region 4-A and Region 7.

On Tuesday, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año said the PNP will be going house-to-house in search of mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 patients who are under home quarantine and transfer them to isolation facilities managed by the government.

But on Wednesday, Año clarified that local health officials would lead in going house to house to search for confirmed COVID-19 cases.

Baguio was hailed for its contract tracing strategy in responding to Covid-19.

Magalong’s contract tracing efforts used the enhanced cognitive interviewing (ECI), which is a recent police questioning technique to retrieve information about a crime scene from eyewitnesses and victims.

Using the same system, Magalong gave police officers and medical frontliners crash courses on ECI.

He claimed that the usual interview would only yield 25 percent of the patient’s location and the people they interacted with.

But using the ECI, the information would increase by 75 percent.

In stressing the importance of proper contract tracing, Gamboa made mention of a scientific finding that the first 10 days is the critical time.

“‘Yun yung nakakahawa. So, sa contact tracers, ‘pag pumasok sa 10 days should be list of contacts,” he said.

He cited the case of around 355 police officers from the National Capital Region who took their oath on July 1, 2020.

They were subsequently transported to Lucena for training.

“Initially, during the processing, parang may nakitang 10 to 11 na positive. But of course, appropriate measures were done,” he said.

After 10 days, all of them were tested, and of the 200 whose results were already released, around 110 turned out to be positive for COVID-19.

Gamboa said they studied what could have caused the infection.

“We learned that around 8 of them are sharing the same tent. The proximity also because of the droplets,” he said.

Thankfully, most of them are asymptomatic while a few had mild symptoms.

Gamboa also underscored the importance of segregation and isolation to prevent community transmission.