No more curfew in Cagayan de Oro after 2 years

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – Cagayan de Oro Mayor Oscar Moreno on Monday, June 6, lifted an order that imposed curfew hours in the city at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago.

Moreno, who has less than a month in office, said curfew hours from 11 pm to 4 am have been lifted since the city has been seeing very low and, at times, days of no new COVID-19 case in the past two months.

Cagayan de Oro’s COVID-19 cases remained low, and it registered a health care utilization rate of 1.51% as of June 4.

But Moreno said city hall still needs to inoculate more people and give booster shots in the campaign to rid the city of the COVID-19 threat.

In an executive order, Moreno noted that the COVID-19 Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) listed Cagayan de Oro as one of the cities in the country with low COVID-19 transmission risks.

“It is time now for the city to spur economic growth of its economy since it suffered due to restrictive policies intended to contain the virus,” Moreno said.

Curfew hours were imposed in the city on March 16, 2020, after President Rodrigo Duterte declared a state of public health emergency to contain the spread of COVID-19.

On the first night after curfew hours were ordered lifted, many motorists and residents stayed up late on the streets or even until the wee hours.

Moreno will end his third term of office on June 30, 2022. He lost his gubernatorial bid in Misamis Oriental in the May 9 elections. – Rappler.com