‘Traslacion not a COVID-19 supers preader event’

MANILA, Philippines — The traslacion or the annual procession of the image of the Black Nazarene, which drew millions of devotees, did not cause a massive COVID transmission, Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan said on Friday.

“Two weeks ago, one of our fears during the Nazareno 2024 was that it could become a super spreader event because of COVID,” she said during a live broadcast on the Facebook page of the city’s public information office.

“Good news is based on our data, COVID cases in our city did not increase, and in fact reduced,” she added.

On Friday, the city government recorded two new COVID cases, bringing the total of active cases in the city to 32.

There were also 125,349 recoveries and 2,105 deaths related to COVID in Manila so far.

Lacuna-Pangan also expressed her condolences to a Manila resident who, despite having completed COVID vaccination, succumbed to “many comorbidities.”

A total of 6,113,598 devotees attended the traslacion, which was restored after three years of restrictions on mass gatherings due to the pandemic, according to the Quiapo Church.

Over 3.2 million devotees joined the procession, while over 1.9 million more heard hourly masses at the Quiapo Church and 939,000 trooped to the Quirino Grandstand for the “pahalik” or the veneration of the image.

The city government repeatedly reminded devotees to keep wearing their face masks. However, most of them joined the religious activity without face masks.