COVID-19: Senegalese Interior Ministry sets terms for reopening places of worship

14 Mai 2020

Dakar, Senegal, May 14  (Infosplusgabon) - Senegal's Interior Minister, Aly Ngouille Ndiaye, has said the reopening of places of worship must be done in compliance with individual and collective measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

In an order published on Thursday in Dakar, he calls for the "mandatory" respect of the limitation of the number of people in places of worship, regular disinfection of these places, the systematic wearing of masks, the establishment of a device for washing or disinfecting hands and social distancing.

As part of the measures to ease the state of health emergency he announced last Monday in a message to the nation, President Macky Sall authorized the reopening of places of worship that had been closed since March 23.

The reopening of these places is variously appreciated by religious leaders, some of whom question the appropriateness of the presidential measure, like the bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Dakar who announced, on Wednesday, the continued closure of churches.

"We maintain, until a more favorable date, all the measures previously taken in our various press releases, especially the one relating to the suspension of public masses," they said in a statement published on Wednesday in Dakar.

Among Muslims, while some imams have decided to resume collective prayers, others, such as the imams of the Omarian Mosque and the Great Mosque of Dakar, believe that the situation is not yet conducive to reopening of mosques, especially in Dakar, a city that has nearly two-thirds of the positive cases recorded in the country since March 2, when the first case appeared at the national level.

On Thursday, Senegal recorded 84 new positive cases of Covid-19 from 992 tests, bringing the total number of registered cases to 2,189.

Among the new cases are 73 contact cases and 11 cases of community transmission, that is to say, of unknown origin.

The disease has caused 23 deaths, mainly of people over 65 years of age, while 842 patients have been cured and 1,323 are currently under treatment in various dedicated health facilities.

FIN/ INFOSPLUSGABON/SDC/GABON2020

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