CEBU CITY, Philippines — Since there are still no finalized guidelines for the Misa De Gallo yet, the Cebu City policemen recommend to the Cebu City government that all those fully vaccinated individuals are only allowed to enter in big parishes here.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), however, admitted that it would be a big challenge not only for them but also to other offices on how they could man the entry and exit points of the parishes here.
That is why they will be closely coordinating with the religious sector and the city government over this. He said that their deployment would be as is since they have sufficient police personnel who could man, secure and make sure that the health protocols in these parishes would be followed.
Parilla said that they also had yet to receive which parishes would be opened to conduct the Misa de Gallo which would start on December 16.
As they learned from the previous measures they had last year or in 2020, Parilla said that they would be anticipating more churchgoers this year considering the eased restrictions, and that was why their focus would be on ensuring that social distancing would still be followed.
Meanwhile, Parilla said that the use of firecrackers, buying and selling, would only be allowed in designated places.
Parilla, however, said that they had yet to know which specific areas would be the firecracker designated zones.
Aside from their monitoring, they will also be coordinating with the Cebu City Fire Department to ensure safety against fire.
Over these preparations, Parilla said that they were hoping that they would be able to sustain the downtrend of COVID-19 cases here so easing of restrictions would continue until everything would be back to normal.
As of December 1, the Department of Health in Central Visayas logged additional two COVID-19 cases, which bring the total number to 83 active cases in Cebu City.
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