R&D project on queen pineapple in CamNorte pushed
Ilocos Norte and La Union have welcomed an increasing number of visitors and tourists since September this year and is now bracing for an influx of more tourists as the quarantine restriction has been relaxed by the IATF to Alert Level 2 this November, along with Metro Manila and other regions.
Because of the change in quarantine restrictions and greater movement of people has been allowed, like in any other major municipalities, the entire Region I of Ilocos developed and implemented their own contact tracing management system.
This contact tracing system has been in place since last year as the Department of Science and Technology Region I (DOST-I), through the Information Technology Service and Management (ITSM) Unit, designed, developed and implemented it to aid in the conduct of contact tracing in the entire region that includes La Union, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte and Pangasinan.
To provide convenience to domestic travelers, the mobile app called FastPass serves as contact tracing system to allow individual's proper documentation, to filter health status and manage border control by using the QR code to fill out the necessary information particularly on health declaration and check-list.
FastPass (Photo courtesy of DOST Region I)
This program is integrated in the local information system called CovidDETECT that was derived from the acronym, Covid Detection and Reporting of Exposed Individuals Through Efficient Contact Tracing. This is a management information system that records individuals’ movement and tracing Covid 19-cases and its close contact that are stored in a database that includes personal information, health and medical details, and travel history. Furthermore, this is used for monitoring and decision making in declaring the region's status and is intended to provide a source of information through its on-line dashboard.
For now, the improvement in the system is on-going as the team behind this project is consistently maintaining the system for the enhancement of the program. This initiative is being managed by Michael John Maquiling, as the head, and his team.
This system is just one of the many knowledge products developed by DOST-I as it joins the celebration of the 2021 National Science and Technology Week this coming 22-28 November 2021. This year’s theme is aptly called “Agham at Teknolohiya: Tugon sa Hamon ng Panahon” that will highlight many innovative solutions and system enhancements that help address many of the country’s pressing problems by providing solutions especially during this time of the pandemic.
Join our researchers, developers and scientists as they share insights on the latest in science and technology virtually via the NSTW website and social media pages, htttp://nstw.dost.gov.ph or https://web.facebook.com/nstwdost.
You can also participate by using our official hashtags #2021NSTW, #DOSTTugonSaHamon, and #ScienceForThePeople. (By. Ryan Sebastian Soyosa, DOST-STII)
