Mozambique: Only churches that meet requirements will be authorised to resume religious services – govt

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Mozambique: Only churches that meet requirements will be authorised to resume religious services – govt

4:04 CAT | 10 Jul 2020

Photo: TVM

The government reiterated yesterday the need for religious denominations to comply with the recommendations expressed by the Technical-Scientific Commission for the eventual resumption of religious services, Notícias reports.

Deputy minister of Justice, Constitutional and Religious Affairs, Filimão Swazi, told a press conference that the reopening of churches would be determined by evaluation in terms of several requirements, including a two metre social distance between believers, the marking of places in the venues where religious services are held, and the creation of conditions for isolating people with symptoms of the disease in places of prayer.

He stressed that places of worship should also ensure that there is piped water for washing hands, the correct use of masks, measuring the temperature of believers, establishing cleaning rotas, and identifying and training individuals responsible for matters related to COVID19 in each place of worship.

According to Swazi, the decision was taken after evaluating measures proposed by religious leaders.

“Churches will not be able to open if they do not meet these requirements, which means that each church will be required to present its degree of preparation,” he said.

He said that the control model would be similar to what will be used for schools, with, in the first instance, a self-assessment exercise, followed by an inspection by the health authorities.

“In the case of a finding of non-compliance with one or another requirement, the church will be invited to close its doors and continue the suspension of its activities until it satisfies the requirements set out in the document elaborated by the Technical-Scientific Commission,” he noted.

With regard to the number of believers that will be allowed in each church, Swazi said that, given the differences in the dimensions of the churches and in the forms of praise and prayer, it would be up to the direction of each church to determine this, in strict compliance with the rules of the decree on the state of emergency combined with the recommendations of the Technical-Scientific Commission .

Source: Notícias