Flower fest cancelled; night market, CARAA suspended

BAGUIO CITY — This year’s Panagbenga Festival will not push through even as the night market and staging of the Cordillera Administrative Region Athletic Association sports meet were suspended.

The interagency task force on the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) in this city decided Monday during a meeting presided over by Mayor Benjamin Magalong to cancel the flower festival “to ensure the safety of everyone.”

The Baguio Flower Festival Foundation Inc., Departments of Health and Education Cordillera and Baguio City police are task force members.

Residents urged the city government and organizers of the festival to cancel the event as the number of COVID-19 cases rises.

The opening parade of the festival, originally set Feb. 1, had been earlier moved to March 21, also due to COVID-19.

The grand float and street parades set on Feb. 29 and March 1 were postponed to March 28 and March 29, respectively.

Magalong said the ukay-ukay night market, which was supposed to start last night, was also closed.

Also cancelled was Session Road in Bloom, a weeklong event which features food and products of various provinces, held after the Panagbenga Festival.

Several local chief executives had either cancelled or postponed town fiestas and other crowd-drawing events as a precautionary measure against COVID-19.

Authorities said there is still no confirmed case in the Cordillera.

In Pangasinan, Gov. Amado Espino III said they are tracing those who had contact with a Filipina who tested positive for COVID-19 upon her return to Australia on March 3.

Espino said he tapped police and barangay officials in Lingayen to locate around 250 people who attended a class reunion with the woman in Dagupan City on Feb. 22.

“We will extend the necessary and full cooperation to the national government because this is a public health issue,” Espino said.

Director Valeriano Jesus Lopez of the DOH office in Ilocos allayed fears on the spread of the virus, noting that the incubation period had lapsed.

Lopez said Ilocos remains free of the acute respiratory disease.

Classes in all levels in both public and private schools in Lingayen and Bugallon were suspended Monday due to COVID-19.

In an executive order, Lingayen Mayor Leopoldo Bataoil directed school officials and administrators to disinfect classrooms.

In Bugallon, a cleanup drive in schools and other public places, such as transport terminals, markets, parks and government offices, was conducted yesterday. – With reports from Eva Visperas