Members of various religious groups attending indoor services should be vaccinated as mandated by the guideline set by the Inter-Agency Task Force, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said on Monday night, April 11.
“So atin pong ipatutupad sa BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) area na ‘yung mga magsasamba po sa mga mosque dapat ay bakunado (So we will enforce in the BARMM area that those attending the religious services inside the mosque should be vaccinated),’’ Año told the President in a news briefing.
Año said he will instruct the Philippine National Police (PNP) to coordinate with the BARMM officials to ensure that the said IATF guidelines are strictly implemented.
“Para po protektado (against Covid-19) talaga ‘yung mga kapatid nating Muslim na sumasamba sa mosque, mga bakunado lang po ‘yung papapasukin (To ensure that our Muslim brothers attending the services inside the mosque are protected, only the vaccinated will be allowed entry),’’ he added.
In the same briefing, Año noted that ‘for the first time’ there are no granular lockdown areas in the National Capital Region (NCR).
He added that three granular lockdown areas are in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), located in three towns and three barangays affecting only three households and six individuals.
If the trend continues, Año pointed out that this only means that the public’s safety against the virus is assured but stressed the need to have more people inoculated especially in the regions with low vaccination rates.
With regard to the implementation of the minimum public health standards (MPHS), Año reported that the number of violators not wearing face masks increased by 5.5 percent raising the figure to 33,952 in the previous week.
“Pero ito naman po sa pag-conduct ng mass gathering at no physical distancing, makikita po na bumaba na sila (But we can see that there was a big decline in the conduct of mass gathering and physical distancing),’’ he noted.
Año disclosed that overall the mass gathering incidents dropped by 81.39 percent and the decline for the same infraction in the Alert Level 2 areas is at 18.12 percent. (Chito A. Chavez)