The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Christian Council President Bishop Delton Fernander says he’s eager to meet with the new Davis administration with a view to relaxing certain COVID-19 measures on churches.

For a long time, the council has felt certain restrictions made no sense, especially considering political events and more recently swearing-in ceremonies have been held with only minimal constraints.

As a result, the BCC president said many church groups now ignored certain restrictions.

“No,” Bishop Fernander said when asked yesterday whether the restrictions had hindered the work of the church. “The church has been ignoring it to be honest with you, especially as we got close to (the) election because there was that feeling that no one was going to enforce the rules.”

 He did not specify which restrictions churches had ignored.

 Bishop Fernander continued: “It simply was that it didn’t make sense to us. Just before (the) election we had a conversation with the (former) Prime Minister (Dr Hubert Minnis) with the agreement that some of the stuff would be relaxed, but the order was never changed and so we operated like we had the agreement.”

 In July, churches in New Providence and Grand Bahama were limited to a one hour worship service daily with a maximum capacity of 33 percent. It was also stated in July that funeral or cremation services would not be allowed but graveside services are permitted with a maximum of 30 people, excluding the officiant and funeral workers. No funeral repasts are permitted.

 While the BCC waits to state its case to government officials, Bishop Fernander said there were a number of things the group hoped to address.

 “As we begin to request negotiation with the state, a number of things the council would be interested in communicating about: one is the restrictions for funerals.

 “We’d like to talk with the new team about it if that is what they are purporting, we are definitely against there being no indoor funerals or memorials like it is for church services because the same protocol that we have for the church services is the same protocol we can have for the funeral or memorial. We are awaiting that because the order still stands, and we need that resolved right away.

 “We also want to talk about the length of service, the one-hour length of service. We would like that to be removed because churches should not be restricted singularly from any other entity in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas where protocols are in place and we have seen that we have had swearing-ins, national services for more than an hour with the same protocols that we use and came up with for the churches and it has been no contact tracing for those events and no clustering from those events so we know that they work and can keep us safe.

 “We also want to know from the competent authority, will it be engaging regularly with the church, and we want to go over some of the things that we were able to negotiate with the former government that we hope will be carried on with this government.”

 Asked if he was concerned that church services could be super spreader events for COVID-19, Bishop Fernander said the BCC was of the view that mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing works.

 In August, The Nassau Guardian reported that multiple members of the Church of God either died or had to be hospitalised after it was believed that they contracted the respiratory virus from attending a youth convention.

 However, Bishop Fernander said church officials did not believe the event was to blame.

 “We had that meeting (and) I would advise all papers to let these incidents come from the health authorities because in that meeting, they said emphatically that the health authorities did not say that these persons caught COVID at those events and we went over it in that if there are clusters and they attended those events there should have been some kind of information.

 “Hence why we need to speak to the new government that if you have a cluster in a worship experience where persons would have gone there, and they would have had COVID they should have been in quarantine. The council should have been notified; the pastor should have been notified.

“We should have not heard that from the press.”

 Following the incident, the Ministry of Health confirmed that multiple clusters of COVID-19 cases were identified during contact tracing activities in July on New Providence and the Family Islands.

 Officials said as cases increased, clusters have been linked to workplaces, construction sites, as well as social and other communal gatherings. However the ministry did not confirm any church cluster.

 “The Ministry of Health is aware of a report in a local daily suggesting a linkage of COVID-19 cases and deaths to a large religious gathering,” the Ministry of Health said in August.

 “It is confirmed that multiple clusters of COVID-19 cases have been identified during contact tracing activities in July on New Providence and the Family Islands. As cases increase, clusters have been linked to workplaces, construction sites, as well as social and other communal gatherings.

 “While COVID-19 exposures can occur anywhere, the Ministry of Health reminds the general public that for all the islands of The Bahamas, private gatherings are to be restricted to five persons provided that the individuals are vaccinated. However, the ministry strongly recommends that there be no large gatherings.”