COVID-19

Naga City’s eSalvar contact tracing app to take effect on October 18

Alzel Laguardia

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Naga City’s eSalvar contact tracing app to take effect on October 18

Naga City residents use the eSalvar contact tracing app. Photo courtesy of eSalvar's Facebook page

The city government will penalize residents who fail to register with the contact tracing app

The Naga City government is set to enforce the mandatory use of its contact-tracing app “eSalvar” for anyone entering enclosed establishments in the city starting October 18. 

Naga City Mayor Nelson Legacion said in an interview with Rappler that all clients, employees, suppliers, and service providers who will be entering indoor establishments will be required to use eSalvar to augment the city’s push to digitize its contact tracing efforts for the coronavirus.

Legacion said business owners raised their concerns through the Metro Naga Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MNCCI) about long queues and risk of transmission via pen-and-paper data contact tracing.

This prompted the city government and business sectors to seek a more “timely and appropriate solution.”

“The concept of eSalvar stemmed from the need to dramatically improve the contact tracing capabilities of Naga City’s Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit (CESU). With eSalvar, people’s movements are automatically made accessible to the CESU,” Legacion told Rappler. 

The Sangguniang Panlungsod already passed Ordinance No. 2020-086 requiring all individuals residing or entering Naga to download their QR code as well as for establishments to register, install, and use the app.

As per the City Ordinance, businesses in Naga are also required to register until October 18.

The penalty for those who fail to register with eSalvar is a fine of between P1,000 to P5,000 or 6 months in prison, depending on the frequency of violation.

The Naga City council also passed Ordinance No. 2020-046 requiring eSalvar registration for visitors who come from areas that have tallied COVID-19 cases.

They include returning overseas Filipino workers, locally stranded individuals, business travelers, and authorized persons outside residence (APOR). 

As of October 2, there are 324,911 eSalvar registrants from in and outside Camarines Sur. (READ: LIST: Coronavirus contact tracing apps in the Philippines)

How does eSalvar work?

The Naga City government partnered with MNCCI and Nueca Technologies Incorporated in launching the city’s digital contact tracing app as a tool to fight COVID-19. 

According to Legacion, the eSalvar’s development began in July and was pilot-tested in August.

“Since the start of the pandemic, we do this (contact tracing) through phone calls, face-to-face interviews, and we depend on the memory of the people to fix the date, time, location, and frequency of contact. It is time consuming and sometimes inaccurate or incomplete,” Legacion said at the eSalvar app launch press conference on September 1.

The mayor himself coined the name eSalvar from the Bicolano word “salvar” or to save. 

Legacion said the app will track the locations of all registrants. But a person’s identity will be disclosed to authorities only when the app tracks that he or she has been to a place also visited by a suspected COVID-19 case.

Residents who test positive for COVID-19 or those required to undergo quarantine will also be flagged by eSalvar so they cannot enter establishments. 

“Once they attempt to do so, establishments will immediately and automatically be alerted of the individual’s status. The attempt will be recorded and reported in real-time to the CESU,” Legacion said. 

The CESU will then send the individual to a quarantine facility, upon the directive of a medical team. 

Registration desks and booths for eSalvar have been set up in the city’s 27 barangays and in select establishments. 

QR registration and printing centers were also setup to assist those who do not have smartphones or active mobile phones. 

Data privacy issues

Residents who have tried the eSalvar QR Code ID support the app, but they have reservations due to privacy concerns. 

“Convenient siya and safer. Less touch, less risk. No touch, no risk…. ‘Yan lang ang fear ng tao, ang identity theft at magamit sa hacking (It’s convenient and safer. Less touch, less risk, no touch, no risk. But people fear there may be identity theft and it can be used in hacking),” said resident Ningning Albong, who first tried using the app at a business establishment. 

Mary Rose Lanuzga, a vendor at the Naga City Public Market, said the eSalvar app is helpful as long as the personal information of an individual is kept confidential and will not be used for purposes other than contact tracing.

Still, she likes the app since it prevents people from touching unsanitized pens for contact tracing. 

“Noong manual log-in, medyo delikado talaga ‘yun dahil hindi naman agad nasa-sanitize ang ballpen na nagamit ng ibang tao. Parang hassle din mag- contact tracing dahil ang daming papel na kailangang isa-isahin,” Lanuzga said.

(Manual log-in was kind of dangerous because the pen used by other people was not immediately sanitized. Contact tracing also seems like a hassle because there are a lot of papers to go through.)

As of Thursday, October 1, Naga City has tallied a total of 383 cases of COVID-19, 66 of which remain active. The city has recorded 303 recoveries and 13 deaths due to the disease.  – Rappler.com

Alzel Laguardia is a 2nd year journalism student from the University of Santo Tomas. She is a Rappler intern.

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