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Over 6.5 million devotees of the Black Nazarene joined the Traslacion on Tuesday as the ceremony was held for the first time in four years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 6pm, the data from the Quiapo Church Command Center shows that the total number of devotees that joined the grand procession reached 6,532,501. The ages-old statue of Jesus Christ is believed by many Filipinos to have healing powers. By touching it, or the ropes attached to the float, Filipinos feel it could remove ailments and bring good luck.

Many personalities, including former Vice President Noli de Castro, are fervent followers.

"We thank our devotees as they followed our appeal for them to stay calm, cooperate, and adhere to our guidelines. The Traslacion is off to a good start and the procession is now ongoing," said Quiapo Church Rector Fr Jun Sescon in an interview on Tuesday morning.

The number of devotees participating in the Traslacion varied depending on the area and time of the procession. Its participants were down to around 500,000 in the narrow streets around Quiapo, but soared to as much as 1,008,000 when it reached the area of Quezon Boulevard.

However, the 6.5 million devotees does not include yet the participating crowd at the Quirino Grandstand, which reached 1.34 million just before the procession started and those who attend the hourly Fiesta Masses in the Quiapo Church, wherein as many as 1.39 million devotees have flocked.

As of 3pm, the Philippine Red Cross said at least 444 devotees were given medical assistance.

"Out of these 606 patients, 256 of these were checked for their vital signs; 182 for minor cases such as abrasion, burn, dizziness, puncture, laceration, difficulty in breathing, chest pain, hyperventilation, wound, headache, elevated blood pressure, and infected wound; six major cases such as head trauma (swelling), laceration, incision, fainting, severe chest pain, suspected fracture on left ankle," it stated.

The Traslacion, which featured a new andas (carriage) as well as a laminated tempered glass case for the iconic image, started at 4:45 am at the Quirino Grandstand.

But while having new features, the Traslacion still encountered familiar problems with devotees continuously attempting to climb the andas despite Quiapo Church officials repeatedly appealing to the devotees to not climb the andas to touch the image.

According to Quiapo Church officials one of the two 50-meter ropes attached to the andas was snapped around early afternoon. The left rope was cut short somewhere in Arlegui St. corner Quezon Blvd. The rope that was cut off was immediately brought to the Quiapo Church.

In a news briefing, Philippine National Police (PNP) Public Information Office (PIO) chief Col. Jean Fajardo said because of the new design of the carriage used by the Black Nazarene image the grand procession will become faster and is expected to finish the Traslacion around 9 to 10 pm.

"As of 11:30 a.m. aside from the minor illnesses and injuries, so far our Traslacion is generally peaceful since it started around 5am up to now," she said.

Fajardo said a total of 22,000 police forces and force multipliers were deployed to secure the Traslacion in Manila.

"On the part of the security preparations and coverage, we deploy close to 18,000 for the Traslacion activities and more than 4,000 force multipliers so it's around 22,000 for our total deployment for Traslacion," she said.

The carriage of the Black Nazarene were able to enter the gate of Quiapo Church around 7:45 pm. As of now, Fajardo said the crowd was estimated at 3.3 million. Robina Asido/DMS