LOCAL health officials announced a “no vaccination, no caroling” rule in Cagayan de Oro ahead of the Christmas rush and merrymaking this December.

The rule was announced on Monday, two days after the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the detection of the first 14 cases of the more transmissible Covid-19 Omicron subvariant BQ.1 in the Cordillera, Ilocos, Calabarzon, Central Visayas regions, and Metro Manila between October 28 and November 18.

Health authorities warned that BQ.1 is capable of evading immunity more although the infections appeared to be milder than the original Delta variant strain.

Dr. Teodulfo Joselito Retuya, the chief epidemiologist of the Cagayan de Oro City Health Office, said people who have not been administered Covid-19 doses, especially children, are not supposed to go caroling because of their vulnerability to the virus.

It would be the first time in more than two years of modular lockdowns and other public health restrictions that the city government would allow people to go out in groups for the traditional carolings.

Children, 11 years and younger, are the priority for inoculation, said Retuya.

“It’s not like we are preventing people from joining the carolings. But we want to make sure they are inoculated, especially the children. Kids as young as five years are the ones who love to go out to the streets, from one house to another, to carol. We need to make sure they have received the primary series of vaccinations,” he said.

As of Monday, the local government logged only 36,842 fully vaccinated kids of the 71,432 children, aged five to 11 years, eligible for inoculation in the city.
Cagayan de Oro, however, was able to keep its number of Covid-19 cases relatively low.

City hall registered eight new infections, nine new recoveries, and no Covid-19-related death on Monday.

But the city’s active Covid-19 cases reached 83, with 45 people admitted to different hospitals across the city.

Of the 83 infected people in the city, 38 were quarantined in city hall’s temporary treatment and monitoring facilities.

Retuya noted that despite efforts to administer two booster shots to people in Cagayan de Oro, only 43.85 percent of the target population have so far received the first round of booster doses as of Monday.