TACLOBAN CITY – An online portal containing information on locally stranded individuals (LSIs) and returning overseas workers were launched on Monday by the Regional Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (RIATF).
The online portal, balik-otos.ph, also aim to make it easy in the contact tracing involving individuals who are infected with the coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19), the RIATFEID) said.
The portal will store information of returning LSIs and returning overseas workers.
The information will include what vehicles they used in returning to the region, their seat number, their permanent address and the quarantine facility where they will stay.
The portal was developed by the regional office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).
Information which will be encoded in the portal will be screened by the DOST before it will be posted on the website, Engr. Ernesto Granada, officer-in-charge of the DOST, said.
Each agency will assign an encoder and approver. The information encoded will then forwarded to the DOST as the main administrator of the portal who will then upload it to the site.
Granada said that the names of the returning residents will not be posted on the website and only the agencies that submitted the names will have access to their personal information.
However, the public will be able to see the graphs and number of cases for each province or city.
“Yung makikita ng public, is more sa mapa lang at saka yung magnitude, kung gaano karami, para may data privacy po tayo, yung public hindi nila makikita kung sino ang dumating, kung ano ang pangalan, taga-saan, anong edad, etc., so may data privacy din yun,” Granada said.
Granada added that they will continue to improve the features of the portal which will include the online registration of returning residents and issuance of Quick Response (QR) code.
For the period from June 6 to June, 30, the Eastern Visayas Emergency Operation Center (EOC), which offices at the Leyte Park Hotel and is under the supervision of the Office of Civil Defense monitored a total of 5,217 LSIs, 631 OFWs and one Balik-Probinsya Program beneficiary.
These figures are provided to the EOC by local government units and government agencies like the Overseas Worker Welfare Administration.
As of July 17, Eastern Visayas has a total of 646 confirmed cases of COVID-19 of which, 607 of them have recovered and three COVID-19 related deaths.
Of these cases, 426 are LSIs, 52 are OFWs, 165 are local transmission and three are Balik Probinsya beneficiaries.
Of the six provinces in the region, Leyte has the most number of cases with 388, followed by Samar with 119, Southern Leyte with 88, Biliran with 26, Northern Samar with 22, and Eastern Samar with three cases.
(ROEL AMAZONA)
