CAN Urges Kaduna Governor To Reopen Religious Centres

The Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria has urged Governor Nasir El-Rufai to re-open religious centres in the state as soon as possible.

This was contained in a letter directed to Kaduna deputy governor and chairperson, Standing Committee on COVID-19, Dr Hadiza Balarabe, signed by the Kaduna State CAN Chairman, Reverend Joseph Hayab, suggested worship guidelines in line with the protocol of COVID-19 from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, and the World Health Organisation.

The association said El-Rufai should include religious days in the lockdown review, following the recent review of lockdown relaxation that sets aside Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as days to be relaxed.

The association believes that churches can adhere strictly to the guidelines of forestalling the spread of the virus by disinfecting their premises before they are reopened for services.

The group said, “Churches will provide alcoholic based sanitisers, 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 sanitisers.

“The temperature of every worshipper must be taken before admission into the church and people with the high temperature will not be allowed into the church but be advised to go and see their doctors. Every worshipper must wear a facemask.

“Worship leaders shall be made wear hand cloves if they are to handle equipment such as the microphone.

“Worship leaders shall put on face mask to cover their mouth and nose when they speak through the microphone.”

Other safety guidelines CAN said it would ensure include, “Worshippers shall be required to avoid joining public transport, therefore, shall be enjoined to worship near home, within walking distance.

“Worshippers who have to travel far to church will be enjoined to make use of personal means of transport.

“Alternatively, churches would be enjoined to provide transport for members without means of transport in adherence to the social distancing rules.

“Social distancing will be observed in the sitting arrangement with one-meter gap between two worshippers.

“Every worship service shall not exceed one hour. There will be a gap of 25 or 30 minutes between one service and another where there are multiple services to avoid crowd.

“Churches can make use of classrooms and multipurpose halls for services where available, especially in big churches to accommodate more worshippers at a go.

“TV circuit and speakers can be used for those who are not inside the main auditorium.

“Handshaking and hugging shall be avoided before, during and after the service. Churches observing Holy Communion service will use separate cups for each participant.”