Amid the continued rise in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases here, Mayor Sara Z. Duterte has stopped the conduct of in-person non-essential events among the barangay, local and national government offices, including government-owned and controlled corporation (GOCC) based in this city

Under Mayor Sara’s Executive Order 31 (EO 31), government-organized activities such as inauguration, anniversary, thanksgiving, ribbon-cutting, blessing, turnover, launching programs, oath-taking, photo opportunity, retirement honors, welcome honors testimonial programs, summer outing, and team building would be banned starting May 26 until August 31.

In a radio interview Monday, Duterte said the order was based on reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) results showing many of those who contracted the virus had attended government events.

“All face-to-face non-essential events are hereby prohibited until the lifting of the state of calamity. So it is absolutely prohibited,” she said.

She added: “Even if it is less than 25 persons it is still prohibited or even if there is only one person in that event it is still prohibited. If it is done online we do not have problems about it because there is no risk of Covid-19 transmission.”

However, the mayor’s order does not cover non-emergency activities, training, and seminars conducted exclusively online.

The exemption also applies to all disaster and emergency activities including the distribution of financial, food, and non-food items.

However, she said the distribution of food and non-food items that are not related to a disaster or emergency event should be done “house to house in the form of contactless delivery by the organizer, or in a distribution system where no mass gathering is conducted.”

“Contactless delivery means you have to put the food packs at their gates and leave,” Duterte added.

Photo Source: Facebook/City Government of Davao