Security Council directs churches to register their premises for effective monitoring

Churches in the Ashanti Region have been directed to officially register their premises for effective monitoring by the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

The directive comes in the wake of the recent lifting of the government’s ban on church gathering which was necessitated by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak.

“The Regional Security Council (REGSEC) is asking all churches to undergo the necessary registration processes at their respective MMDAs in this critical time of COVID-19.

This is to facilitate the work of the assemblies in the area of monitoring to check whether or not the churches would abide by the measures put in place in the course of their activities to mitigate the spread of the pandemic,” Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, the Chairman, told a press conference in Kumasi.

Those who flout this order, he said, would be dealt with, stressing that the Security Council would not compromise in its resolve to ensure that the COVID-19 preventive protocols were adhered to strictly by the church.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his recent tenth address to the nation on measures taken against the spread of the pandemic, announced the lifting of the ban on religious meetings, including the church.

According to the President, all church services must be conducted within an hour with a congregation of not more than one hundred (100), while the identity of the members should also be booked before such activities are held.

Additionally, leaders of the various churches are to ensure that all the COVID-19 preventive protocols are followed to the letter, including social distancing and hand-washing, as well as the use of hand sanitizers.

Under the new guidelines, churches are also required to use thermometer guns in checking the body temperature of members before they are allowed entry into the respective premises.

Ghana’s confirmed COVID-19 case count stood at 8, 297, with 2, 986 recoveries and 38 deaths, as of Tuesday, June 02, this year, according to the Ghana Health Service’s portal on the pandemic.