Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic in Nigeria, churches have been shut down since the month of March.
Despite the initial one month lockdown imposed on three states, the coronavirus cases seem to be climbing rather than reducing.
Yesterday 31st march, Coronavirus cases in Nigeria spiked to over 10,000.
The agency has however discharged 3007 patients upon recovery while 287 deaths have been recorded.
See their tweet below
307 new cases of #COVID19;
Lagos-188
FCT-44
Ogun-19
Kaduna-14
Oyo-12
Bayelsa-9
Gombe-5
Kano-3
Delta-3
Imo-2
Rivers-2
Niger-2
Bauchi-2
Plateau-1
Kwara-110162 cases of #COVID19Nigeria
Discharged: 3007
Deaths: 287#TakeResponsibility pic.twitter.com/YKOiX7aMA5— NCDC (@NCDCgov) May 31, 2020
However, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is making plans to reopen churches come the first Sunday of June.
Furthermore, CAN has issued a draft of guidelines for the reopening of churches in the country.
This was contained in a statement signed by CAN President, Samson Ayokunle.
The statement reads
- Churches should disinfect their premises first before they are reopened for services.
- Churches should provide alcoholic sanitizers, temperature readers, soap, and water in their Premises to be supervised by medical professionals in the Church.
- Every worshipper must either use soap to wash their hands or apply sanitizers.
- The temperature of every worshipper must be taken before admission into the church and people with a high temperature should not be allowed into the church but be advised to go and see their doctors.
- Every worshipper must wear a facemask.
- Social distancing should be observed in the sitting arrangement with the one-meter gap between two worshippers.
- One and a half-hour service is enough for a start.
- There should be a gap of 25 or 30 minutes between one service and another where there are multiple services to avoid the crowd.
- Churches can make use of classrooms and multipurpose halls for services where available, especially in big churches in order to accommodate more worshippers at a go.
- TV circuits and speakers can be used for those who are not inside the main auditorium.
- Handshaking and hugging should be avoided before, during, and after the service.
- Prayers should be offered to God for a speedy end of COVID-19 and quick recovery of all that are afflicted by the pandemic.
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- Prayers should also be offered for those frontline workers for divine protection.
- CAN in each state and local government should constitute a committee together with law enforcement agencies in their area to enforce full compliance.
- Such civilian compliance officials should be given backing by the governments to apprehend those who contravene the worship regulations and hand them over to law enforcement agents.
- Churches observing Holy Communion service should use a separate cup for each participant
As churches prepare to reopen, the Federal Government has debunked rumors that schools are planning to do so as well. According to the Minister of State for Education Emeka Nwajiuba, schools cannot reopen until the Government can guarantee the safety of the students. The Minister also took into cognizance the continued rise of Coronavirus in Nigeria.
He revealed this while briefing the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 (PTF).
“Until we are sure that our children can go to school and return safely without taking COVID-19 home, we are not ready to take the risk of opening schools.” he said
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