Hoping for another miracle

It’s short of a miracle that the holding of dawn masses in the lead-up to Christmas Day in December or the physical novena masses for the Fiesta Señor 2021, before these were canceled by Augustinian friars earlier this month, did not contribute to the sharp rise in the number of coronavirus cases in Cebu City.

Unless someone is not telling the truth, or is manipulating it.

The fact remains, though, that active Covid cases increased from 93 on Dec. 20, 2020 to 689 a month later.

Although the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) identified gatherings during the holiday season as one reason for this, Inter-Agency Task Force for the Visayas chief implementer Ret. Gen. Melquiades Feliciano, during an interview with SunStar Cebu on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021, did not link church congregations to the ongoing development.

The brunt of the blame was instead placed on illicit drinking sessions, some business establishments’ breach of protocol or clandestine parties that were held in some hotels and bars.

However, none of these activities were photographed or captured on video that were posted online. And even if they were, the number of people involved could not come close to the magnitude of the crowd that flocked to churches around the city during these aforementioned occasions, which had prompted Mayor Edgardo Labella to instruct the City Health Department and the EOC to anticipate the possibility of a surge in Covid cases.

Well, the resurgence has occurred and authorities are saying that church attendance had nothing to do with it.

The City Government even allowed residents with City-issued quarantine passes to physically attend the Hubo mass at the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño de Cebu, which signifies the end of the Fiesta Señor, on Friday, Jan. 22.

City Councilor Phillip Zafra, chairman of the committee on public order, said health protocol would be strictly implemented inside or in the vicinity of the Basilica to ensure the safety of churchgoers.

Zafra did not make any assurance that no one would not get infected with Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019, but he did urge devotees to remain at home and hear the mass online or through broadcast.

In the meantime, Melquiades is optimistic that the EOC will be able to address the “slight” rise in the number of cases in a few days.

At least, he hopes, anyway.