Resumption of church services comes with strict attendance limits

EL CENTRO — Following the state’s announcement Monday that it would allow churches and other faith-based organizations to resume services on a restricted basis, Imperial County announced Tuesday it would do the same. But churches aren’t necessarily satisfied.

Under previous state guidelines, churches restricted from holding services until Stage 3 of the county’s reopening plan, but pushback from churches and others, including President Trump, prompted the policy to be re-evaluated.

Effective immediately, local churches can reopen for services on a limited basis. Attendance per service for large churches will be limited to 100. For smaller churches – those with fewer than 100 members – services will be limited to 25 percent of capacity.

The churches will still follow social distancing and the safety guidelines, like wearing face coverings and using hand sanitizers, County Public Health Officer Steven Munday announced at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Munday said the governor’s order in allowing churches to reopen has mandates and a few strong recommendations. Munday said given the county’s recent surge in COVID cases, some of those strong recommendations will be mandates locally.

Per the county’s amended health order:

• Places of worship that choose to reopen for religious services and funerals must establish and implement a COVID-19 prevention plan for every location, train staff on the plan, and regularly evaluate workplaces for compliance.

• Additional religious activities such as in-person Sunday school, bible study, and children’s church are not permitted at this time.

• Services must eliminate singing and group recitation as these activities dramatically increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

• Churches must discontinue the use of collection plates. Walk-by collection containers for congregants to drop in donations are allowed.

• Use of preprinted programs, bulletins and shared-use objects such as Bibles and hymnals is prohibited at this time. Members should be encouraged to bring their own.

• Church employees and volunteers must be trained on COVID-19, including how to prevent it from spreading and which underlying health conditions may make individuals more susceptible to contracting the virus.

• Churches must implement cleaning and disinfecting protocols.

• They must implement physical distancing guidelines.

The order also recommends that staff and guests wear cloth face coverings, and screen staff for temperature and symptoms at the beginning of their shifts.

The county, after talking with state officials this past weekend, also chose to allow retail business to open up to walk-in customers once a reopening plan has been submitted and accepted. Businesses where social distancing is not possible will remain closed. Those would include barbershops and nail salons.

While the Imperial Valley Mall will reopen, Supervisor Chairman Luis Plancarte explained some of the stores in the

mall will have to remain closed.

Plancarte urged the community to follow the social distancing and safety guidelines. In one week’s time, the percentage of COVID tests coming back positive has increased from 24 percent to 29 percent. The state will not allow the county to move to the next stage until the positive testing is 8 percent or lower.

We are supposed to be at 8 percent, and we are going the wrong way,” he said.

At churches singing, prayers, vigorous talking and collection plates will not be allowed, but there can be boxes in the back for those who want to provide or donate to churches.

Fr. Mark Edney, pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Mary Catholic churches in El Centro, thanked the county and state for allowing the church to resume baptisms, sacraments, weddings and funerals.

“Imagine a wedding where no one can come,” he said.

However, Edney objected to the cap of 100 people in attendance. He said St. Mary and Our Lady of Guadalupe have 4,000 members between

them. Every weekend, there are seven masses held, the largest of which has an attendance of 800, he said.

“It will be very hard on our people,” Edney said. “I have 4,000 mass attendees on the weekends. What do I do?”

Doing 40 masses of 100 congregants at each service is not possible, he added.

Edney said he was expecting social distancing was going to be discussed when the county explained church reopening, but he was surprised at the capacity number.

“Having only 100 will be hard,” he said. “What am I going to tell 4,000 people? Only 100 of you can come in?”

He said the church understood and started preparing for masses with social distancing guidelines in place, but he called the 100 number an arbitrary one.

“Opening the church to this number will result in distress,” he said.

After the press conference Edney said he was expecting that the maximum capacity was going to be set at 25 percent for churches, which would have been hard but much better than 100 people in total.

“Twenty-five percent is not too bad. That is what we were expecting,” he said. He added the churches may have to require reservations or some other measures to decide who will be allowed to attend mass.

Munday explained the 100 number was set by the state. The county has the right to be more restrictive on this number, but is not allowed to be more lenient, he said.

Restrictions on retail businesses reopening, on the other hand, will be based on their abilities to enforce social distancing guidelines.

Edney questioned why his parishes and other churches are not treated like the retail stores in relation to size and social distancing.

Imperial County

Board of Health Director Janette Angulo said county officials want to move forward in reopening, but they cannot do it alone.

“It will encourage all of us to make a difference,” she said. “I highly encourage you to follow the precautions. We want to reopen, but we want to reopen in a safe manner.”