Quiapo Church on lockdown after priest tests positive for COVID-19

MANILA, Philippines — Quiapo Church is currently on lockdown after a priest tested positive for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

In a phone interview on Monday evening, Fr. Douglas Badong told INQUIRER.net that the Minor Basilica of the Black Nazarene has been on lockdown since June 19 after a priest who stayed at the church for months during strict community quarantine tested positive for the respiratory disease.

According to Badong, the priest left the church on June 13 following the easing of travel restrictions to return to Mindanao. But Badong noted that the infected priest had a stopover at Cagayan De Oro before going in his home province, where he tested positive for COVID-19.

As a precaution, they immediately placed the historic church under lockdown and put its over 80 staff under the mandatory 14-day quarantine although all of them have tested negative for the disease using the rapid antibody test.

“Inistop namin ‘yung pagpapapasok ng mga tao. ‘Yung 10 persons na misa wala na muna but we still continue ‘yung Facebook live streaming na misa,” Badong told INQUIRER.net.

(We stopped people from entering church premises. The Mass for 10 people have been suspended temporarily but we still continue the Facebook live-streaming of the Mass.)

The lockdown will be until July 4, the parochial vicar of the Quiapo Church said.