By Aiyeku Timothy
The Edo State Government Coronavirus (COVID-19) Task force visited churches in the state to enforce compliance to safety protocols as directed by the state government to help stop the spread of the second wave of the pandemic.
Some of the churches visited by the state government monitoring team, led by Mrs. Grace Ireotoi and Mrs. Irene Uabor, are Holy Cross Cathedral, All Souls Anglican Church, Christ Victory Bible Church, St. John Vianney Catholic Church, among others.
Ireotoi hailed the worship centres for insisting that worshippers abide by the new directives when she spoke with the press.
Her words: “The second wave of the COVID-19 is real. We want to see for ourselves if the churches are observing social distancing and if provision was made for hand washing facilities. We also wanted to observe if worshipers are adhering to the directives on compulsory wearing of face masks. These preventive measures are strictly to be adhered to by churches.
“Within the church, things are going on smoothly, but it is a different ball game outside. Social distancing is not being observed. We have spoken to the heads of the protocol units and they have promised to work on it, but for the use of facemask, the compliance is 98 per cent,” she said.
Meanwhile, Rev. Father Alfred Agbonlahor said the Catholic Archbishop of Benin had urged parishes to comply with the government’s protocols, adding: “We have consistently reminded our parishioners to always put on the need to use their facemasks. The church also provided hand wash stations.”
Nigeria recorded its lowest figure of daily infections and deaths from COVID-19 in the past week with 964 new cases and two deaths reported on Sunday.
