PHILIPPINES – In support of the government’s efforts to ramp up contact tracing capacity for COVID-19 cases, PLDT Enterprise enables free access to COVID KAYA app developed by the Department of Health (DOH) Epidemiology Bureau.
PLDT Enterprise is offering registered health workers free access and required connectivity for the COVID KAYA mobile tracing app in cooperation with DOH, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
Contact-tracing app COVID KAYA is a real-time reporting platform used exclusively by registered health workers in the country to track all COVID-19 cases and contacts. Through this partnership, app users need not worry about incurring mobile data charges.
“PLDT Enterprise’s focus on bayanihan is best exemplified by our commitment to continuously provide the right technology solutions for the problems we face today. With this initiative, we hope to further enable DOH in their endeavors to respond to and combat COVID-19,” said Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President & CEO and SVP & Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups.
Healthcare providers using this app can easily report cases to the DOH Epidemiology Bureau, allowing the health agency to handle case investigations and interview those who may have come in contact with infected individuals. The app’s real-time monitoring capability will show the bottlenecks and delays in patient services across the continuum of care. Moreover, frontline responders will be able to use COVID KAYA to better manage their work.
With WHO’s support, DOH aims to simplify using COVID KAYA to allow the smooth flow of critical data among frontline responders. Currently, the two main priorities for the app include boosting the efficient data entry and data management of COVID-19 cases and their contacts, as well as simplifying real-time data entry in COVID KAYA.
“The timely sharing of data and speedy action to contain transmission is critical in saving lives,” said Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe, Acting WHO Representative in the Philippines. “As the country expands testing, contact tracing in order to track, isolate and treat is an important step in reducing the impact of COVID-19 to secure a healthy future and building back our society and economy. COVID KAYA is a helpful tool for the government and public health work force to quickly collect, analyze and share information – we need to empower our front liners and help them make decisions efficiently.”
This collaboration with WHO and DOH is one of the ongoing initiatives that PLDT Enterprise has been engaging in since the pandemic began. PLDT Enterprise is continuously pushing efforts to make connectivity more accessible and available to the public and private sectors at this time.