Nightlife returns as curfew lifted in Cagayan de Oro

Cagayan de Oro map

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY — The night has come alive here again after the local government lifted the curfew on Monday, June 6.

By Tuesday, bars and entertainment joints along Corrales Avenue had been filled with people even towards midnight.

A taxi driver told the Inquirer he is hopeful the return of the vibrant mood in the main night party hub of this capital city of Northern Mindanao will help buoy up their earnings, even if not yet to pre-pandemic levels owing to the steep price of fuel.

The curfew from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m., which was in effect since mid-March 2020, was the last of the stops pulled out by the local government to pave the way for a full reopening of the economy.

From June to August last year, the curfew period was lengthened to seven hours as COVID-19 cases surged and the city was placed under stringent quarantine rules by health officials.

In lifting the curfew, outgoing Mayor Oscar Moreno noted that the city has been under alert level 1 risk classification since March 31 this year due to a consistently low level of COVID-19 infections.

For the last two weeks, there have been no new cases registered by health authorities except one each on May 30, June 2 and June 5.

“There is a need to spur the economic growth of the city which has suffered greatly due to the restrictive policies intended to contain the spread of the virus,” Moreno said.

The National Economic and Development Authority estimated that the city suffered some P269 million in lost economic output daily when it was placed under modified enhanced community quarantine in June last year.

The quarantine restriction was further tightened by July as the city registered several cases of infection of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

Infections only began to slow down by November as more people have taken COVID-19 vaccine shots.

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