Venezuela To Reopen Churches In November Following 7-Month Coronavirus-Related Closure

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published October 22, 2020 | 05:10 PM

CARACAS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd October, 2020) The Venezuelan government considers the country's epidemiological situation fit enough for reopening churches, which remained closed for more than half a year due to COVID-19 pandemic, Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez said.

"President Nicolas Maduro has considered that Venezuelan churches have to prepare for an upcoming opening � we have carefully reviewed the sanitary and epidemiological protocols with different churches," Rodriguez said in a statement, broadcast by the Venezolana de Television public channel.

According to the official, the reopening of churches is expected to start next month.

The vice president stressed that churches would still have to adhere to the prevention rules, such as the use of face masks and sanitizers, frequent hand washing, temperature checks and social distancing.

The maximum allowed capacity of churches will be limited to 40 percent for now, according to Rodriguez.

Places of worship have been closed in Venezuela since March, when the first COVID-19 cases were detected.

The Venezuelan government has adopted the so-called 7+7 strategy, which implies a rotation between seven days of flexibility and 7 days of strict quarantine.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Venezuela registered more than 88,000 COVID-19 cases, including 753 deaths and nearly 81,000 recoveries.