You will not hug in a Rwandan catholic church nor shake hand with your neighboring church mate until further notice.
The episcopal council has sent a notice with three items to the attention of the church attendants in effort to avoid any potential spread of the corona virus, a global concern which is yet to reach Rwanda.
“In the common practice of wishing the Peace of Christ to each other, Christian should nor hug not shake hand as usual,” reads part of the notice.
“During the holy communion practice, Christians should pick the Eucharist with the hands, never with the tongue,”
And finally, as the notice reads, “when you enter the church, do not bother deepening the hands in the container of the holy water placed at the entrance. Church emptied the vessels by measure of precaution.”
Antoine Kambanda, the archbishop of Kigali who signed this communiqué requested Christians to “pray without ceasing so that God preserves Rwanda from the coronavirus.”
The church however said, it will keep monitoring the trends and will let the Christians know about any change.
According to Al Jazzera, China’s National Health Commission reported on Saturday at least 28 new coronavirus deaths as of the end of Friday, taking the nationwide death toll to 3,070.
The government also reported 99 new confirmed cases on March 6, down from 143 the previous day, with a total of 80,651 cases nationwide. Most of the new cases and deaths were from Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak in China.
Meanwhile, on Friday, China’s health agency reported that at least 53,726 people have been discharged from hospitals after recovery.
