NCDC drops guidelines for reopening Churches, Mosques

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control, NCDC, has dropped the guidelines reopening of worship centres to ensure safe gatherings and prevent exposures to COVID-19 infection in religious settings

Nigeria's COVID-19 cases have risen to a total of 15682 after the NCDC announced 501 new cases on Saturday night.

With the ban on religious gatherings lifted by the Federal Government, Churches and Mosques are due to reopen and as such the following guidelines must be strictly adhered to:

• Before opening, disinfect place of worship by fumigating the entire building, congregation space and car parks. Wipe all surfaces with disinfecting agent.

• Disinfect regularly touched surfaces by washing or wiping with disinfectant.

• Open windows and doors to enable air in and out.

• Make adequate provision for soap, running water & hand sanitizer at entry points.

• There should be no entry without face masks, provide disposable face masks where practicable.

• To help educate on COVID-19, it is recommended for places of worship to have preventive messages from NCDC posted at entry points and around places of worship.

• Holy Communion should be packaged in disposable wraps.

• Drinking water points, public toilets and sales outlets must be closed for now.

• Ablution should be done at home, do not share kettles or any personal items.

• Religious leaders must maintain 2 meters when praying or counselling and avoid body contact with members.

• Places of worship should be free of carpets and rugs to allow easy disinfection of the floor.

• Places of worship must open only between 5am and 8pm.

• Choristers are to go home with their robes.

• Hijabs are not to be shared.

• Attendance in every service should not exceed 1/3 of sitting capacity of the auditorium to enable physical distancing; all other members should join the service virtually.

• The keeping of registers for worshippers and attendees is encouraged at entry points with proper regard for hand hygiene; hand sanitizers should be made available and persons advised to use their personal pen. This makes contact tracing easy should the need arise.


Further guidelines can be gotten from the link below:

@NigeriaGov has authorised re-opening of places of worship with strict adherence to guidelines

See our guidelines for compulsory measures for religious gatherings including

????Temperature checks
??Social distancing
????Hygiene practices

Download & share!https://t.co/Q1UjwtyGdc pic.twitter.com/Op5UGRYETF

— NCDC (@NCDCgov) June 13, 2020