By Froilan Gallardo
Special Correspondent

STARTING yesterday, children aged under 18 years old can already go inside malls and shopping centers in the city.

The city Covid-19 Operations Center issued the guidelines allowing minors inside malls and shopping centers provided they are accompanied by their parents or adults.

“Infants can also go inside the malls and shopping centers as long as they are accompanied by their parents or adults,” Covid-19 governance cluster head Oliver Egypto said.

Lawyer Jose Edgardo Uy, chair of the city Regulatory Compliance Board said the city government, however, stood pat in their decision not to allow residents who are not fully vaccinated in the malls and other public areas.

Uy said establishment security guards are instructed to check the vaccination cards of their customers who want to go inside.

“I suggest that you should carry your vaccination card always because the security guards will check these,” Uy said in the press briefing yesterday.

Egypto said the carrying of vaccination cards will become mandatory replacing the Barangay Exit Pass issued last year by the city government.

“Guards will no longer check the barangay exit passes. You do not have to carry them anymore,” he said.

Eqypto said the barangay exit passes are no longer a requirement in traveling around the city.

Meanwhile, the “No Vax, No Entry” policy of the city government will stand opposite to the move by anti-vaccination advocates in the city.

A strong anti-vaccination group sent “cease and desist” letters to Mayor Oscar Moreno and Misamis Oriental Governor Yevgeny Emano to stop the vaccination drives.

The group leaders, Mary Clair Tan, Jeria Miras, Bob Lagumen, and journalist Joey Nacalaban said the government vaccination campaign is “worse than extra-judicial killings and it is a genocide.”

The National Inter-Agency Task Force has chosen Cagayan de Oro as one of its pilot areas where Covid-19 restrictions have been eased.

The national IATF placed the city under Alert level 2 after the city’s Covid-19 cases dropped last month.

City Health Office reported only six new infections on Thursday with zero death and only 502 active cases in the city isolation units.