CCPO to donors: Coordinate with brgys to avoid gathering of crowds in still locked down areas

Donors are encouraged to cooperate with authorities in holding their donation-giving activities to residents in lockdown areas to prevent a crowd from gathering. | CDN Digital file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Donations from donors to areas in Cebu City with high numbers of coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) cases should be coordinated with the barangays and the donors should not go directly to the residents to avoid a crowd of people coming together.

This is the reminder of Police Colonel Josefino Ligan, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) chief, as  the COVID-19 infected areas will remain on lockdown with strict security measures while the rest of the city shifts to general community quarantine (GCQ).

According to Ligan, while the residents in these areas won’t be able to go out as much as those living in the non-hotspots of COIVID-19 during the transition to GCQ, buying of food and other basic needs may still be one of the problems that the residents will face.

However, there are those, who have been donating food and other hygiene kits, who go to these areas during the transition to GCQ.

With this, Ligan encouraged the donors, who may be planning to donate, to always coordinate with the authorities to avoid people from coming together in a crowd.

“We discourage nga manghatag sa kanang mga boarders kay chances are dumugon sa mga tawo,” said Ligan.

(We discourage donors, who will donate goods and food, to give directly to the boarders because there will be more chances that these activities will create a situation where more people will gather in an area.)

Ligan said that the COVID-19 infected areas would remain on lockdown despite the city transitioning to GCQ, as there would still be several procedures that would need to be done before the government would lift the lockdown.

He said that, for now, the worse case scenario for the areas would still be the gathering of crowds, which the CCPO were monitoring and to immediately break off these crowds should this happen./dbs