Top cop urges Filipinos to avoid Christmas travel

MANILA: A senior police officer on Tuesday joined health officials and advocates in discouraging the people from going home to the provinces for the traditional reunion with their families during the Christmas season to help contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID -19) pandemic.

“Please, don’t. Check first the protocols in the provinces you are planning to visit because the LGUS (local government units) could have imposed reasonable restrictions ( due to the pandemic),” said Lieutenant General Cesar Hawthorne Binag, the new chief of the Joint Task Force COVID Shield.

Traditionally, thousands of Filipinos make their annual trek to the provinces during the

Christmas season, considered the most festive of the holidays, to join their families and friends in the celebrations.

Earlier, President Duterte announced late on Monday night in a televised address that Metro Manila remained under the general community quarantine (GCQ) from Dec.1 to 31 along with the provinces of Batangas, Lanao del Sur and Davao del Norte as well as the cities of Iloilo, Tacloban, Davao and Iligan.

The rest of the country is under the more relaxed modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) that allows more business firms and factories to operate as well as lit restrictions on travelling, according to Duterte.

Meanwhile, Binag’s appeal followed that of Health Secretary Francisco Duque and the medical community discouraging people from proceeding with their plans visit families and friends during the holiday season.

They warned that because the virus has an incubation period of 14 days, there was the high possibility of a spike in new infections especially during the Christmas week. As such, they urged people to limit their celebrations to immediate family members.

“Please do not invite other relatives who would come from other places because we can’t be sure if they are from COVID-19 areas. For Filipinos overseas, there are various videoconferencing plaforms that that they can use,” Duque appealed.

The Health Professionals Alliance Against COVID-19 made a similar appeal, saying that people atending large indoor gatherings where there is poor ventilation are at a higher risk of catching the virus.

This developed as the OCTA research group at the state-owned University of the Philippines projected that the country’s COVID-19 cases could hit 500,000 by the end of the year due to “large community transmission exacerbated by the rise in mobility due to the opening up of the economy.”