DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will now be banning certain events of government offices after the city reported that these events became the source of the Covid-19 transmission, based on contact tracing history.
Duterte-Carpio said in a radio interview on Monday, May 24, that the City issued on the same day Executive Order (EO) 31, or "An Order Regulating All Barangay, Local, and National Government Offices, including Government-owned and Controlled Corporation Events" effective 12:01 a.m. of Wednesday, May 26.
She said the EO will be implemented until the lifting of the "state of calamity."
"Because nakita nato sa history sa atoang contact tracing nga dunay government events nga nahimong source or spread sa infection (we saw in the contact tracing history that certain government events became the source of infection)," Duterte-Carpio said in an interview on 87.5 FM Davao City Disaster Radio.
The mayor specified the ceremonies and events such as inauguration, anniversary, thanksgiving, ribbon-cutting, blessing, turnover ceremony, groundbreaking, launching, salu-salo (gatherings), birthdays, press conference, oath taking, photo opportunities, retirement honor, welcome honors, testimonial programs, summer outing, team building, and all other similar activities.
She also said that all face-to-face "non-emergency" essential government activities, including training and seminars are suspended until August 31, 2021. These also include medical missions.
Duterte-Carpio said the order applies despite having 25 guests and below.
All disaster and emergency activities, including the distribution of financial, food, and non-food items are allowed, the mayor said.
She said distribution of food and non-food items that are not related to disaster and non-emergency events should be distributed house-to-house in the form of contactless delivery by the organizer, or in a distribution system where no mass gathering is conducted.
The mayor, meanwhile, encouraged government offices to shift to virtual ceremonies.
She said government events have contributed to the bulk of Covid-19 cases in the city; hence, the decision to regulate these events, as these are "easily controllable."
"Dili nato siya ma-relate nga siya ang pinakataas na percentage, but naa tay makita nga mga cases or transmission ani nga events (While we cannot say that these events have the highest percentage in the number of cases, we saw that there has been transmission in these events). These are easily controllable events. So pwede ra nato siya i-executive order diretso (We can regulate these through an executive order)," she said.
Aside from government events, most cases of transmission are from social gathering.
The mayor's move is in response to the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the city.
As of May 23, Davao City has again reached 1,000 active cases.