CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The City Health Office urged Christmas carolers here to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and strictly follow the minimum public health standards.

Dr. Teodulfo Joselito Retuya Jr., CHO epidemiologist, said Christmas caroling would now be allowed in this city after being strictly prohibited in the last two years due to the pandemic.

The city epidemiologist stressed that people will not be prevented from caroling. However, he asked carolers under five- to 11-years-old to complete their primary series of vaccination before going out.

Apart from the primary series, Retuya also urged individuals aged 12-years-old and above to get booster shots.

“The important thing is we need to ensure that (the people) we let go around are vaccinated and it would be much better that they still practice the minimum public health standards, especially in our masking,” Retuya said in vernacular during the virtual Covid-19 press briefing of LGU-Cagayan de Oro.

Retuya emphasized the importance of face masks during caroling. He said not wearing them would be a big risk and encouraged the public not to go caroling if they have flu-like symptoms.

As of Sunday, Nov. 27, only 175,234 individuals had first booster vaccination out of the 384,822 total eligible here. This city has 33,067 fully vaccinated children aged five to 11-years-old as of Nov 27.

To ramp up vaccination, this city will conduct the “Bakunahang Bayan Part II Special Covid-19 Vaccination Days” from Dec. 5 to Dec. 7. This seeks to achieve the 50 percent target for the first booster dose vaccination for the general population 12-years-old and above.

Retuya hopes that this city’s vaccination coverage will improve after the Bakunahang Bayan. He said this would be an assurance for the Health department to allow caroling without worrying from the virus.