Quiapo Church on lockdown after visiting priest gets COVID-19

The Quiapo Church has been placed on a lockdown after a visiting priest tested positive for COVID-19 in the middle of June.

Quiapo Church has been placed under lockdown after a visiting priest tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Fr. Douglas Badong, parochial vicar of the Quiapo Church, told GMA News that the lockdown would be until July 4. It started on June 19.

According to Badong, the priest stayed in the church following the implementation of community quarantine in the previous months. When travel was allowed, he already returned to Mindanao where he was tested for COVID-19.

It was on June 13 when it was discovered that the priest got infected of COVID-19. Badong said there is information that the infected priest went to Cagayan De Oro.

The church's staff and other priests are not allowed to go out of Quiapo Church.

The Catholic faithful are also not allowed to enter the church and attend masses. They may just hear masses through the screen placed outside the church.

Badong said the other staff and priests of the church also have undergone rapid testing wherein they tested negative for COVID-19. -Anna Felicia Bajo/NB, GMA News