Churches ditch holy water for hand sanitisers

Churches spooked by the rapid spread of the coronavirus globally are switching the holy water fonts for hand sanitisers instead.

And they are also appealing to churchgoers to cut out handshakes and hand-holding during public worship.

Both the Anglican Church of SA and the Bay Catholic Diocese sent out letters recently with guidelines for their parishes.

The measures came to light as health minister Zweli Mkhize confirmed four new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in SA to seven.

All of them are linked to the group of 10 that returned recently from a trip to Italy.

In his letter on February 28, Anglican Church of Southern Africa Archbishop Thabo Makgoba gave guidelines to consider, such as ensuring the availability of hand sanitisers for parishioners, personal hygiene before and after pastoral visits in hospital and homes, and advising parishioners who are ill rather to stay at home.

“It is prudent to ensure that we review our practices in pastoral care and public worship to keep everyone, especially the most vulnerable due to age or infirmity, safe and allay fears that may arise because of the outbreak of the coronavirus,” he said in the letter.

Less than a week later, Bay Catholic Diocese Bishop

Vincent Zungu advised: “Remove all holy water fonts [the vessels at the church entrance] as they contain bacteria and fungi.

“Sprinkling of parishioners can be done instead, using the Asperges rite.

“Stop the practice of holding or shaking hands during the liturgy.

“Communion should be received on the hand.

“If necessary to give communion on the tongue, care should be taken to avoid touching saliva.”

Zungu said in his letter that when visiting the sick and housebound for the administration of sacraments, touching, holding, shaking hands and hugging should be avoided.

“Hand sanitisers should be made available before and after communion for the priests, and for all those who assist with the distribution of holy communion,” he said.

Port Elizabeth Hindu senior priest Guru Kesu Padayachy, who represents the Shri Siva Subramanier Aulayam temple, said he was advising his congregation to stick to traditional methods of greeting.

“Our traditional way is to place our hands together, but over time some members have become westernised and now shake hands,” he said.

“I have appealed to our members to stick to the traditional methods to limit contact.”

While there are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in the Eastern Cape, 16 people were tested in February and given the all-clear.

Provincial health spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said 15 people were tested at Livingstone Hospital in Port Elizabeth and one was tested at Cradock Provincial Hospital.

He declined to say what had prompted the tests.

Kupelo said the province’s main focus was on preventing the spread of the virus should any reported cases be confirmed.