The Philippine government urges Filipino residents to skip the tradition of visiting houses to do Christmas caroling this year to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año suggested to do virtual Christmas caroling as an alternative for the season.

“Kung magkakaroon ng caroling, siguro online na lang, online caroling pero yung personal at saka face-to-face ay sa ngayon hindi pa muna nararapat dahil hindi pa natin nafa-flatten ang curve (of coronavirus disease 2019),” said Año.

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The Vice-Chair of the National Task Force Against COVID-19 is now also planning to propose a nationwide ban on face-to-face caroling to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

“Hindi pa naman yan bawal kasi hindi pa nagkakaroon ng resolution mula sa IATF pero yan na ang ating ire-recommend. Yan din ang recommendation ng mayors natin sa NCR. (For now, it is not yet prohibited there is no IATF resolution yet but that is what we would recommend. That is also the recommendation of our mayors in the National Capital Region),” said Año.

Metro Manila mayors have also earlier agreed to ban Christmas parties in the region this year as these could lead to mass gatherings which may result in a spike of COVID-19 cases as per reports from the Philippine News Agency.

Earlier, Joint Task Force Covid Shield commander Lt. Gen. Guillermo Eleazar also backed a proposal to ban face-to-face caroling this Christmas season to prevent further transmission of the COVID-19.

Eleazar said while he understands that caroling has always been part of the Filipino tradition, the country is now facing a different situation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“We are facing a serious threat of coronavirus disease and we in the JTF Covid Shield believe that it is in the health interest of everybody if we could just stay home and enjoy the yuletide season with our family,” he said.

If the caroling ban is approved, Eleazar said parents should explain to their children why there is a need to skip the traditional caroling at least for this year.

He said children are considered as the most affected by the community quarantine rules since they could no longer do what they used to enjoy before the pandemic like going to school, playing with fellow kids, and even going to the mall.