The Delta State Government and religious leaders on Wednesday decided not to allow more than 50 worshipers at a time in any church or mosque in the state.
They also agreed to keep at least a distance of six feet apart from each worshiper to avoid contacts and to check the spread of Coronavirus Disease.
The State Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu said the decision was from the meeting of the State Task Force on COVID-19.
Aniagwu said the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Muslim groups in the state held meeting on Tuesday in Asaba.
He said: “For quite some time, now the governor has taken decisions and proactive steps with a view to ensuring that we are not caught napping with respect to the COVID-19 ravaging the country and international community.
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“What we have done today is in furtherance to the precautionary measures. The Governor felt there is need to consult with religious groups to help in maintaining the precaution put in place.
“After the meeting with the bodies, the government has agreed that on no account should any of the religious groups gather more than 50 persons at a time.
“This is because we believe that there is need to practice social distancing and we are praying that as we make progress, we will have cause to review some of these decisions.
“But we are praying that the state remains as safe as it is now. You know that there is no case of COVID-19 in Delta.
“We have also made it known to them that they should try through other means to communicate to their members to try as much as possible to observe all the behaviours that we have rightly pointed out before now.
“These are regular washing of hands, sanitising as much as possible and also maintaining a very clear distance among and within people.”
In his remark, Chairman CAN, Delta Chapter, Apostle Sylvanus Okorote, said that the meeting was about control and prevention because the pandemic had no cure for now.
He said: “Everybody has to keep himself. First, social distancing was agreed upon and it is the most important aspect of it, at least six feet in between persons and no shaking of hands.
“As for church service, we agreed actually to reduce the church service as much as possible down below 50 persons per service.
“We will do further consultations and we could even ask people to pray from home because it might come to that. But, we thank God that we don’t have a case yet in Delta,”