Quiapo Church reopens after 2-week lockdown

The Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene or Quiapo Church reopened on Friday, July 3, after almost two weeks of being on lockdown.

Father Douglas Badong, parochial vicar of Quiapo Church, said they decided to reopen the church after finishing their quarantine.

“Our rapid tests turned out negative. We also complied with the 14-day quarantine,” he said in an interview.

Quiapo Church was closed to the public on June 19 after a visiting priest tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19).

The priest stayed at Quiapo Church because days before his flight back to Mindanao, the government imposed the Enhanced Community Quarantine.

When the priest left on June 13, his rapid test turned out negative, but when he arrived in their place and was tested again, both his rapid and swab tests were positive.

As a precautionary measure, Quiapo Church officials decided to close the church to the public for disinfection, while all their priests and staff underwent selfquarantine.

According to Badong, they were supposed to reopen today, July 4, but decided to do it a day early since it’s the first Friday of the month, a day anticipated by Black Nazarene devotees

“We appealed to city hall because its first Friday and they allowed us,” he said.

But Badong said the participants in their masses are still limited to 10 people in accordance to the rule of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

“After the mass, we allow people to enter to pray but in limited numbers also,” he said.