Davao City liquor ban lifted; ‘We will live with COVID-19,’ says mayor

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte – Carpio (file photo)

DAVAO CITY – The city government lifted the liquor ban and other restrictions as COVID-19 cases continued to drop while the number of fully-vaccinated persons breached the city’s 1.2 million target for herd immunity,

Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said the city could not wait for everything to be COVID-free to lift the liquor ban and allow businesses to go back to normal.

“We will be living with COVID-19,” she said.

“We cannot wait until we can eventually say we are COVID-free, or there is (a complete) eradication of COVID-19 because we (do) not know whether COVID-19 will ever go away. It is very difficult to wait for that,” she explained in a program streamed through her official Facebook page.

Aside from the number of fully-vaccinated persons hitting the 1.2 million target population to achieve herd immunity, the availability of antiviral drugs to fight the virus was also considered in the city’s decision to loosen up, she said.

This developed as the city expects the national government to place it under Alert level 2. During the InterAgency Task Force (IATF) meeting on Monday, Davao City was no longer mentioned among the seven areas in the country that remained under the Alert 3 status.

As economic activities restart, Duterte-Carpio, however, urged everyone to continue to observe health standards.

“Maybe tomorrow or late today (placing the city under new classification),” Interior and Local Government Regional Director Alex C. Roldanin said on Monday.

The city has been placed under Alert Level 3 until February 15 because of the surge of COVID-19 cases last month.

On Sunday night, the city recorded 57 new COVID-19 cases, the lowest since the surge in the middle of January.

The mayor said the lifting of the liquor ban and other new policies, including the lifting of the ban on government events, is meant to ensure that the economy would slowly recover.

“What we are looking at in fast-tracking the resumption of economic activities, the same direction of the national government, is the opening up of tourism activities,” she said.

She also raised the possibility of reopening the Roxas night market here soon. The Roxas night market used to be a favorite converging place for people until the pandemic struck, prompting the city to close it down.

In April 2020, or a month after the first COVID-19 case was monitored here, the city government first imposed the 24-hour ban on the selling and consumption of liquor in public places. Although the ban was modified last year to allow the selling of liquor, drinking continued to be confined at home.

The mayor also urged those who had not yet been vaccinated to go to the nearest vaccination site to get the vaccine to protect themselves against the disease.

“We will do this journey of slowly opening up (the economy),” the mayor said.

The mayor said she would also lift the ban on events and government functions as her next step in opening up.

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