KUCHING: The Association of Churches in Sarawak (ACS) will cooperate with the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) if church activities need to be suspended again because of the spike in Covid-19 cases.
Chairman of ACS Archbishop Simon Poh told New Sarawak Tribune this when asked on Sunday whether Christian churches in the city would be closed in view of the spike in Covid-19 cases.
He said all Christian churches are ready to comply with and support SDMC in its effort to contain the spread of Covid-19 for the common good of everyone.
“As we have read, Kuching is now a yellow zone with new cases beginning in July. This reminded me of March 15, almost four months ago, when we first heard reports of a few cases of Covid-19 in Kuching.
“The main difference now is that we have social distancing in place, with wearing of masks in public,” Poh pointed out, adding that currently, social distancing and standard operating procedures (SOPs) are in place and that there were less than 100 persons in a church at any one time as an additional precaution.
“Social distancing and wearing masks are very important and have been effective at our mission school site meeting. Although people were in contact with a positive person, there was no further infection because of these SOPs that were adhered to.
“This was the circuit breaker that prevented new clusters in our mission schools. Likewise, the SOPs in church serve the same function,” he explained.
Poh, who is also the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuching Archdiocese, also urged Catholics and all people of goodwill not to be complacent as the virus is still lurking somewhere and ever ready to spring forth.
“I take this opportunity to re-emphasise the importance of adhering to our church reopening SOPs when coming to mass. This is how we break the chain of infection and prevent any new cluster,” he stressed.
Poh also appealed to the public not to stigmatise people and places that had been affected by persons who tested positive for Covid-19.
“We should respect, support and pray for them. Where there are positive cases, let us not be too fast to stigmatise the place as a new cluster. A cluster is when there is a chain of new infections.
“Accordingly, some places should not be simply named on social media when there is no further infection. For example, SMK St Teresa and St Joseph’s Private School,” he said.
“I exhort all Catholics to continue trusting in the Lord Jesus and to pray that there will be no second wave and that the current infections be contained. Let us never allow fear to paralyse us from serving and being kind to others,” he added.
