BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson of Negros Occidental is leaving to the local government officials to decide whether they would allow minors to go to malls or not.
Earlier this week, the national government’s Inter-Agency Task Force allowed minors, as long as they are accompanied by their parents, to enter shopping malls this holiday season.
“I would rather leave the discretion to the respective LGUs (local government units),” Lacson said.
But the governor told local chief executives to seek the health authorities’ advice first.
He said activities of the minors in the mall should be limited to buying their necessities and eating in restaurants.
The easing of age-based restriction is in line with the effort to revive the economy, according to Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque.
However, the plan was met with objection from the Department of Health (DOH).
It was a “bad idea,” according to Health secretary Francisco Duque III.
Children, he said, might catch coronavirus disease 2019 (COV ID-19) and inadvertently spread it among family members.
A check on DOH’s latest COVID-19 data showed children aged 14 years old and below accounts for five percent of the cumulative tally of COVID-19 cases in the country.
Since March, 123 children lost their lives to the virus, 84 of them below four years old, DOH added./PN
