The Presidential Committee on COVID-19 on Tuesday announced guidelines for re-opening of religious houses as announced yesterday.

Dr Sani Aliyu, the Coordinator of the Committee said at the briefing of the Committee on Tuesday that since Covid-19 is not over in Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria is in the exponential phase of the disease as the country has now become the country with the third highest number of the of the infection in Africa.

“We must, therefore, continue to take precautionary measures; now is not the time to relax,” Aliyu said as he reeled out the guidelines for the opening of the religious houses.

The guidelines reeled out by the PTF include limitation of congregational gathering days to Sunday and Fridays and limitation of total time for Friday prayers & Sunday Services to one hour at the maximum.

Hence, mosques are to open only for five daily prayers & Friday prayers while Churches are to open only for Sunday services.

The PTF also said Islamiyyah schools, Sunday schools, night vigils to remain closed and that there should be no social gatherings before or after worship.

It also advised all those with underlying conditions or above 55 to stay at home and explore virtual participation because they are susceptible to dying from the virus of they are infected.

In addition, the PTF said all places of worship must commit to implementing the following: –

“All places of worship must sign up to full compliance with all aspects of non-pharmaceutical interventions required to protect the public from COVID-19 including but not limited to ensuring the supply of running water and soap, alcohol sanitisers at entry and exit points in all high contact locations including bathrooms.

“Worshippers must sanitise their hands before entry.

“Worshippers must have temperature checks before entry and the supervision and the enforcement of this will be led by the leaders of these facilities.

“Use of face masks is mandatory.

“Strongly discourage all close contacts including shaking hands, hugging, using prayer mats, musical organs, microphones etc.

“The capacity of the facility should be limited to allow physical distancing of at least two meters between persons.

“Facilities should consider the use of cloth or surface markings to guide distancing and people from the same household should be encouraged to stay together.

“Local arrangements will apply to the capacity of these facilities but the most important thing is to make sure that the physical distancing rule applies.

“Local authorities will be advised in terms of areas of hotspots that might require greater restrictions

“Volunteers should be limited to exact numbers needed and none of the volunteers should have underlying medical conditions or be above the age of 55 years.

“Responsibility for enforcement will be with the leadership, church or mosque committees and supported by local authorities including state governments.

“Churches to open from 5am and close by 8pm

“For churches, each service should be for a maximum of an hour with an interval of thirty minutes in between services to allow time for disinfection

“Mosques may open 15 minutes before and ten minutes after prayers. The total time for Friday prayers should not exceed an hour.

“Islamiya schools, Sunday schools, night vigils and children classes are to remain suspended.

“Worshippers should be encouraged to sign up for preferred worship and make the option of virtual service an option.”