DAVAO CITY – As COVID-19 active cases hit the 1,000 mark, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio announces that local and national government activities in Davao City will be suspended as some cases of COVID-19 transmission are reported to have come from recent government events held in the city.
The City Government also called for regulation of community pantries by advising them to go house to house instead, which has already been implemented earlier by pantries.
During Monday’s Special Hour program on Disaster Radio, Mayor Duterte-Carpio said a new executive order will be released to regulate the functions of government activities.
The City Government of Davao’s Executive Order 31, which takes effect from March 26 until end of August, will suspend all face-to-face non-emergency essential events such as inaugurations, anniversaries, thanksgiving activities, ribbon-cutting, turnover and blessing of government facilities, ground-breaking activities , launching programs, salo-salo, birthdays, press conference, oath-taking program, photo opportunity, retirement honors, welcome honors, testimonial programs, summer outings, and all other similar activities.
This also includes all face-to-face training and seminars conducted and initiated by the local or national government and all government owned corporations and companies (GOCCs) which will be permitted only on online platforms.
As of May 23, Davao City now has recorded 1,015 active cases, while the Southern Philippine Medical Center has reached full capacity and private hospitals are now admitting COVID-19 patients in special wards. It is a situation the mayor said is “not comfortable, as SPMC is the biggest hospital to accommodate COVID cases…it’s a sign of trouble.”
“Guilty both ang national and local offices ani nga mga panghitaboa. So naghimo ta og executive order ug kung unsa ang banned na mga events sa gobyerno. Gibawal, buot pasabot di na gyud ni siya pwedi samtang dunay State of Calamity, (The national and local offices are both guilty for this. So we are releasing this executive order, so whatever events are mentioned here are banned and prohibitied as long as this State of Calamity is ongoing), ” she said during the program.
The city government will only allow disaster and emergency activities including the distribution of financial, food, and non-food items, and will prohibit the distribution of food and non-food items that are not related to a disaster or emergency event.
Food distribution like community panties in the city should be distributed house to house in the form of contactless delivery by the organizer or in a distribution system where no mass gathering is conducted. House to house distribution is also advised for livelihood kits, information materials, distribution of government aid, community pantry, food aid and all other similar activities.
