Government officials are denying claims by some church leaders that the state is using a ‘Peter pays for Paul’ approach against them to contain COVID-19 clusters.
Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde said she would not support that kind of discrimination if it occurred, while head of the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit Ronald Chapman said churches, like bars, were considered high-risk because of some of the activities carried out.
In recent months, some clusters have been linked to churches. On Sunday, when the latest COVID-19 directives kicked in limiting church attendance to a maximum of 25 people, some church leaders expressed their concerns about those restrictions.
Speaking on Starcom Network’s Down To Brass Tacks radio call-in-programme yesterday, Chapman responded to complaints that churches were being treated differently to other institutions as the country grappled with the viral illness.
“I think there is an us/them approach when it comes to churches and bars. I want persons to know we have had challenges with both bars and churches. Churches and places like bars have a specific risk profile and that profile puts them in high-risk categories. (TG)
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