Information Minister, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah has stated that the lifting of restrictions on churches, mosques and other religious gatherings with regard to the number of persons admitted is subject to the sitting capacity of these establishments.
He said that although there has been some changes from the first phase of the easing of restrictions, whereby churches were subject to one hour maximum and a hundred person admittance, social distancing and safety precautionary measures remained intact.
“In this second phase of the easing of restrictions, the tenure has been moved to two hours, social distancing and safety etiquette remains. The hundred cap has been lifted, your maximum will now be determined by the capacity of your auditorium based on social distancing”.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
“So when everybody spreads minimum one meter apart, how many people your auditorium can accommodate is what will determine your maximum”.
This comes on the back of the President’s 14th address on the implementation of phase two of the easing of restrictions in various sectors. In consultation with church leaders, Akufo-Addo directed that effective 1st August, 2020, the restrictions on the number of members will be lifted.
“I am, therefore, very happy to announce that, in consultation with our Church leaders, from 1st August, 2020, the restrictions on the number of congregants worshiping at a time in Church will be lifted, with the length of worship extended from one (1) to two (2) hours per service. Church leaders, who are desirous of implementing this enhanced easing directive, must ensure that congregants wear face masks at all times, and the one (1) metre social distancing rule is scrupulously applied. These same guidelines apply to worship in our Mosques. With greater numbers of congregants likely to return for worship”
President Akufo-Addo
The President further cautioned religious leaders to ensure compliance with the directive and tasked them to ensure proper ventilation of their premises “rather than relying on the use of air conditioners”.
With regard to activities such as weddings and funeral, the information minister stated that they are well within the remit of the directive provided, “they are being held within the framework of churches and mosques and related places this will apply”.
“Private burials is allowed… funerals themselves are not exactly something that are being allowed at this point in time, so to the extent that and for all of these burials that they do they have some sort of religious activity that they associate it with. This rule will apply in that context”.
Meanwhile, the president in his address also indicated “open air drinking spots can now function” as the nation’s tourist sites will reopen to receive visitors. Mr. Oppong Nkrumah explained that, the desire is to open up our tourism sector, except for beaches and night clubs.
According to him, the guideline for opening beaches will hopefully be rolled out in the third phase of lifting restrictions.
“The reason is that, what we’ve noticed with beaches even in recent times when we were trying to clamp down is that, people don’t necessarily wear masks when they are going to swim and there are very large numbers at these beaches, social distancing becomes difficult to observe there, and so we are not there yet there”.
