Bacolod mass wedding set despite COVID-1 9 scare

BACOLOD City – Despite the health threat posed by the COVID-19 virus, 220 couples here will exchange “I dos” in an afternoon mass wedding on Feb. 20 set by the city government.

The wedding venue is the Bacolod City Government Center, according to Mayor Evelio Leonardia who recently sought guidance from Dr. Marlyn Convocar of the Department of Health (DOH).

He assured Convocar “we (will) take into account and diligently implement…preventive measures against COVID-19.”

“Through your regular updates on the COVID-19 status in the region and the vigilant measures undertaken by our Bacolod City Inter-Agency Task Force Against COVID-19, we feel confident that we are properly addressing this health emergency,” Leonardia added.

If there were additional or new precautionary measures that the Bacolod City government needed to know and implement particularly during the mass wedding, the mayor told Convocar, “We will appreciate receiving your official advice, guidance and recommendations soonest.”

In an advisory released recently, DOH Region 6 stated, “With the ongoing threat of the spread of the COVID-19 we are strongly urging the public to avoid attending, participating in, and organizing events that draw a huge number of attendees, and thus recommending the cancellation of such planned big events or mass gatherings until further advise.”

COVID-19 was first encountered in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

Like other coronaviruses, it originated in animals and then migrated to humans. Many of those initially infected either worked or frequently shopped in the Huanan seafood wholesale market in the center of the city, which also sold live and newly slaughtered animals.

China’s national health commission has confirmed human-to-human transmission of the virus.

The virus can cause pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties.

In severe cases there can be organ failure.

There is as yet no medicines or vaccines against  this new coronavirus./PN

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