As the Min­istry of Health con­tin­ues to mon­i­tor the uptick in COVID-19 cas­es glob­al­ly, An­gli­can Bish­op Claude Berkley is en­cour­ag­ing parish­ioners to ex­er­cise due cau­tion and con­tin­ue to ob­serve pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures.

Sev­er­al oth­er re­li­gious bod­ies have al­so re­sumed COVID-19 mea­sures at the re­spec­tive places of wor­ship. Last week health au­thor­i­ties con­firmed the first lo­cal case of the JN.1 vari­ant of the coro­n­avirus (COVID-19), and that six deaths were record­ed be­tween De­cem­ber 23, 2023 and Jan­u­ary 18.

In a cir­cu­lar to the cler­gy on Thurs­day, Berkley said, "Con­se­quent to the Me­dia Re­lease of the Min­istry of Health as it con­tin­ues to Mon­i­tor COVID-19 Trends of a glob­al in­crease in COVID-19 cas­es, we are en­cour­aged to ex­er­cise due cau­tion in the con­duct of our busi­ness. The up­surge in in­fluen­za, COVID-19 and oth­er res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­eases has been ob­served in the Caribbean re­gion and on the lo­cal front."

He ad­vised that with im­me­di­ate and con­tin­u­ing ef­fect, un­til fur­ther no­tice, sev­er­al mea­sures should be ob­served. Not­ing that the mea­sures were not new, he re­mind­ed each parish­ioner of his/her re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for per­son­al hy­giene and safe­ty, he en­cour­aged them to com­mit to ap­pro­pri­ate res­pi­ra­to­ry, hand and per­son­al hy­giene.

The Bish­op al­so en­cour­aged mask-wear­ing (prop­er­ly fit­ted) for wor­ship and oth­er gath­er­ings, es­pe­cial­ly among vul­ner­a­ble per­sons while the use of masks by the cler­gy and sanc­tu­ary par­ty in prepa­ra­tion and cel­e­bra­tion of the Eu­charist should be main­tained.

The oth­er mea­sures in­clude:

*Op­por­tu­ni­ties for hand wash­ing and or use of hand san­i­tiz­er so­lu­tion, must be main­tained.

*Intinc­tion or re­ceiv­ing in one kind, (the Pre­cious Body), must be main­tained.

*Nat­ur­al ven­ti­la­tion of build­ings when oc­cu­pied, should be the pre­ferred op­tion.

*Parish­ioners may be en­cour­aged to ob­serve three feet spac­ing be­tween per­sons when gath­ered for wor­ship or oth­er func­tions, ex­cept from among fam­i­lies of a com­mon house­hold.

*Re­stric­tions on the Greet­ing of Peace should be main­tained.