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COVID-19: Delta govt. warns religious bodies ahead reopening of worship centres

Godwin Udoh

The Delta State Government has warned religious bodies not to allow their members cluster during worship, following the reopening of worship centres in the state.

The religious bodies were also urged to maintain appropriate social distancing and respiratory hygiene directives.

Commissioner for Information in the state, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, said these, in Asaba, the state capital, while briefing journalists on the decisions of the  government to rejig the state’s economy.

READ ALSO: https://www.thexpressng.com/2020/05/22/covid-19-now-full-scale-business-for-some-says-gov-ayade/

Aniagwu noted that, “Last time we issued some directives on partial relaxation of the lockdown, while taken steps to ensure that religious places of worship including Christians and Muslims can worship without having a congregation that can jeopardise the interest of our people.

“We have now removed the ceiling on 100, 50 or 20 worshippers but if they must congregate, they must observe proper social distancing in their places of worship whether it is in the church or in the mosque

“It’s has been directed that Christians should hold services thrice a week, thus; Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, no cluster, even when we needed to have as many people to worship God and also pray for against this dreaded diseases to disappear.

“Muslims were they need to worship will also observe that social distancing but in the case of the upcoming Muslim festival they have on their own elected to worship from home as they cannot guarantee appropriate social distancing during the festival, they also asked their members to pray from home for the state and country.”

Furthermore, the Commissioner expressed the desire of the state government to open up the economy for growth activities despite fighting the pandemic which had slowed down the economic activities considerably.

He continued, “Part of the decision was to ask contractors handling various road projects to return to site and also to ensure that projects do not suffer on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The issues of COVID-19 and the challenges it posses to our economy and other economies of the world dominated public discussions and to that extent, it has greatly impacted developments particularly on infrastructure and also our social behaviours.”

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Aniagwu also urged residents that the idea of putting on the face mask because of police man is not good for us as a peoples, it is for our common good, ensure that they wear it once they are in public places.

While emphasising that the state was determined to ensure that different protocols of regular washing of hands, use of sanitisers, wearing of face masks, maintaining of social distancing and good respiratory hygiene were adhered to by residents of the state.

Aniagwu continued, “As a government we have taken certain decisions with a view to ensuring that our development plans are not jeopardised entirely and to that extent, we have asked that contractors, particularly those involved in road construction should go back for site now that the rains are not disturbing yet.

“The Commissioner for Works is already moving round and has been able to inform us that a number of the contractors are busy at their different sites because we don’t want to suspend development because of COVID-19.

“We will continue to ensure that our people are safe from this particular virus and this is why we urge those wearing face masks to know that they are not wearing it for any police man but to protect themselves and their neighbours.

“We are still very much interested in enforcing the federal government directive on border crossing and border control and so anybody that doesn’t belong to those that are exempted are not encouraged to come in and make things difficult for us,” he stated.

He cautioned those operating private hospitals to ensure that they are cautious and professional in dealing with patients who approach them so that the state can reduce the incidences of having medical personnel contracting the virus and then jeopardising the interest of government.

He explained that the state’s fatality from COVID-19 was a bit high because a number of them were quite old and have some prevailing ailments called commodity in medical parlance.

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