Transcript:
Hello I'm Dr. Hamilton-Stubbs and this is the COVID-19 update for today June 23rd 2020 and this episode of the update is focused on places of worship. When we reopen places of worship, there are two sets of responsibilities.
Let's talk about the worshipper. It's important that we let the worshipper know that they do have some responsibilities so that everyone can be safe. Some of those responsibilities include wearing a mask, practicing social distancing, frequent hand-washing, and avoid touching the face nose in your eyes and avoid close contact with others know. Know and practice the protected coughs and instead of talking into an elbow, I suggest coughing into a tissue and then throwing that tissue away. Know the signs and symptoms of COVID-19, so that you cannot come to the place of worship if you are experiencing these symptoms. The best place to stay update with these symptoms is on the Virginia Department of Health website COVID-19 checker. This application allows you to put in your symptoms and then it tells you if you need to stay home self-quarantine or get out to see a health provider. If you have respiratory symptoms follow the CDC guidelines and don't attempt to self-diagnose. There's a tendency to say well it's just, it's just my allergies but it may not be your allergies, so don't self-diagnose. If you have respiratory symptoms, take necessary precautions. It is possible it is your allergies, but you could have allergies and be infected with the coronavirus.
When we look at the place of worship, the places of worship have responsibilities to the worshiper, employees, and volunteers, as well as the community at large. Remember we come in to places of worship to prepare to go out into our community to serve. So we need to make sure our place of worship doesn't become a site of coronavirus infections. I like to think of dividing the task of reopening into groups and phases. You will have to think about what to do as you prepare to be open, what can be done, when you are it opening, and then what is done doing the worship service, and what is done after the worship service. So I'm trying to get to the table of content because this is how we'll cover what we should be doing as we prepare. So part of consideration, when you approach reopening find people who are reliable, who will help in the process, and divide the task up. Update your information your policies and procedures as new information becomes available. It can be frustrating, but as new information becomes available you will want to be sharing the most accurate information to your worshipers and just implementing it to improve safety while worshiping.
Prior to worshiping, you're going to have some people that you need to identify. If you have a small congregation and you don't have enough people consider partnering with another place of worship so that maybe you can share people who will do this work together. So some team members that I think you need to have in place someone who's going to monitor the CDC website, the World Health Organization website, the websites for your local health department, State Health Department, and you can also find excellent information on the websites of our elected officials so don't forget to check the governor's website, our Senators website. You need a person that's going to organize your team and keep a schedule and when the team will be meeting. Someone to record the minutes and then you need a contact person where people in a congregation can send their questions and those questions will be 40 to appropriate people on the team. Having more than one person in these roles is essential because if someone becomes ill, you still need to be able to carry out this safety precautions and not be solely dependent on one person come up with ideas that work for your members on how you're going to disseminate the information. If you have a ordered congregation, they may not be very comfortable with technology, drop back to some of the things that we did before technology, send by regular mail. Telephone trees are excellent because this allows us to actually communicate with some of our members who may be feeling the effects of social isolation. Other methods for dissemination of information: email, social media, posters that you're going to place around your place of worship, and a good place is inside the stall in the restroom. If you have a newsletter, a website, or a podcast put the information there. If you have decided to divide your worship members into small groups, have a designated leader send that person information to be shared with the entire group and a chance for the entire group to ask questions. Some people do not feel comfortable asking their questions in a large group, but they real bond with people in a small group and ask questions that may be important and on the mind of other people and just not being voiced. Don't forget the mental health considerations.
Prepare people for change. People need to know that we are not going to be coming back into our places of worship the same way we left them. We will need to take some precautions and these precautions should be things that people are made aware of prior to coming into the facility. So prepare the worshiper for change and then remind them that there will be changes. I think is good to prepare for at least two weeks before you plan on reopening. Post changes in the parking lot, on posters or signs, in the walkway of buildings, at the door in various places around the building. And then it make sure that you're emailing information and keeping your worshippers up to date about how the worship procedures will change. Post those changes on the website. There's a preparation for change and then reminding of change. Preparation of changes: educating worshippers about what to expect and why. In my experience when people understand why something should be done and the consequences of if it is not done they are more likely to accept the change, and make the effort to change, and it also becomes less intimidating. You'll want to let them know that there'll be changes in the parking area. For example, everyone can't get out of their car at the same time and walk toward the door. This will create a congested area. Let them know that you may not be able to sit in your favorite seat because the seating will be marked so that everyone is 6 feet apart, at a minimum. Let them know about using the restroom. You have to make sure that even in the restroom people on social isolated so it may have to wait until someone exits before you can go in. And speaking of entrance and exiting there should be a single entrance into the building and a single entrance out of the building for a routine movement. Of course, you want to have emergency exits, but just coming into the building, everyone should be coming in, in one entrance, and everyone should leave out is separate entrance. And this avoids big crowds for people having to pass a large group of people. If you can have them enter one end and exiting another end and then having them follow ushers, direction of your ushers. Send out reminders of the change. Maybe the day of so before and give people a chance to ask questions. Let them know how they can ask their questions. Before, you open you want to make sure that you have enough information to promote healthy hygiene practices. This is hand washing there's a poster that's included with this downloadable free booklet: Reopening places of worship and it has some posters from the Center for Disease Control that demonstrate how hands should be washed and that the duration should be 20 seconds. Cloth face coverings should be worn by everyone. Well there are some exceptions, people who have respiratory problems and young children under two, it's not recommended that they wear face coverings. I have seen a lot of people who say they cannot breathe with the mask, but you want to mask sure people are actually using the mask correctly and the right size and there's different styles of mass. So rather than wearing the mask incorrectly which is below your nose or under your chin so that your mouth and nose exposed try changing to different types of masks and even a scarf is better than no covering. it offers some limited protection.
Make sure that you have the staff available to intensify cleaning, disinfection, and then look at ventilation. Cleaning and disinfection are not the same. Cleaning is what you were doing before the pandemic. This is removing dirt, grime, trash that's left behind and then disinfecting is using those approved solutions that have been shown to kill the coronavirus. I like the simple solution of bleach and water but you want to look at the recommendations from the manufacturer on cleaning whatever it is that you are going to be cleaning. Ventilation is important. If you can open the windows please try to do that, leave doors open, and this helps air to circulate. When the room is closed, the virus is in there and it's going to accumulate at higher concentrations if there is some person in there who's infected. If you're using air conditioning that needs to be checked if the building has been closed and you haven't been using it. And what you want to do is check for mold and risk for Legionnaires. Legionella which causes Legionnaires disease. If you don't have someone who can do this for you, you may need to hire a professional person to make sure that your air conditioning isn't harboring mold and other bacteria and viruses that could be dangerous.
Promotes social distancing and have some way for people to know where six feet is little marks on the bench, marks on the floor, and signs that remind people social distancing. Minimize sharing their worship materials so the hymnal may need to be replaced. I don't recommend everyone printing on paper your songs that you're going to be singing or singing is really not recommended, but you are material. I prefer that you have it projected on a wall and posted on social media where people can look at it on an electronic device, a personal electronic device. And you will need to have more than one microphone if you have more than one person speaking. Decreasing the spread during the service: when you are in the service the best ways to decrease the spread is to practice the recommendations from the Center for Disease Control. Have in hand sanitizing stations around the place of worship, the sanctuary, and these hand sanitizers should have 60% of isopropyl alcohol. Make sure you not using methyl alcohol which is also wood alcohol. There are some sanitizers that are dangerous and those that have methyl alcohol are not recommended because methyl alcohol is a toxin and too much of that absorbed into your system can be fatal. You also want to make sure that your hand sanitizers meet the recommendations of the CDC and right now there are 60% of isopropyl alcohol. If you are making your own hand sanitizers that can be a little risky because you can dilute it so that you have less than the recommended 60% of isopropyl alcohol. Replace the choir with the soloist and have that person in a separate area because singing causes the virus to spread more. You can also replace the require with the limited number of singers who are singing with a mask on preferably and their own individual masks, and spaced space at least 6 feet apart, and their own microphones.
Prepare your building: have seating marked, posters signs reminding that social distancing for 6 feet at a minimum, and mark the entrance and exits, and let people know ahead of time that they should wait in their seat for the usher to tell them how to exit the building. Have a place for people who appear to be sick so they can wait while you are waiting for their transportation to take them home or to a health facility. You may also want to section off places for families. Families can sit together if they're living together. Your place of worship should have personal protective equipment: masks for one, hand sanitizers, and this is for people who may show up not prepared with their own personal protective equipment. Identify your high-risk worship groups and you may want to have them sit separately. Make sure they have a mask. And during the worship service the most important thing that's going to be a change is not being able to hug. If you have a social hour where you go and welcome each other with a hug, replace it with something else that allows you to practice the social distancing. Singing that can be dangerous, replace it with something else, and using reusable objects like your hymnal, your church fans or place of worship fans, these all have to be replaced. People may need to bring their own. Now after the worship, there still needs to be some consideration of what to do. You want to clean the sanctuary or your place of worship like you usually do. Pay special attention to restrooms. The virus tends to live a little longer in the restroom. Your person who is cleaning should have the protective personal equipment, the room should be well ventilated, especially if you're going to use a vacuum. You may need to check the Center for Disease Control's website regarding using a vacuum cleaner in your place of worship. Once you have cleaned your sanctuary, then go back and disinfect with your approved disinfected solution. Make sure that when you are disinfecting, that you leave the solution on for the appropriate amount of time. When you're going to vacuum, make sure that the air condition unit is turned off. Because the virus can contaminate your air conditioning system and spread the virus more and vacuuming may stir up viruses that have landed on them on the floor. The person that's cleaning should wear disposable gloves and let's discard those gloves after cleaning, if possible. Clean your hands immediately after removing the gloves and use the five step method for washing hands: wet your hands with running water, and then apply a soap. The soap doesn't have to be a strong antiseptic so just one that lathers, and be sure to scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. You might need a timer or you could help hum the Happy Birthday song at least twice. Rinse your hands well and then dry your hands on a clean single-use towel or air dry and when the person wants to leave the restroom or the place where they're washing hands, one suggestion is to have an automatic door opener, automatic way of opening the trash can, and if you cannot afford to install this feature on the door, consider installing a little metal catch that allows people to insert their arm into this catch and open the door. If there's no way to wash your hands with soap and water, you can use hand sanitizer it should be an alcohol-based sanitizer at least 60% of alcohol, but hand-washing with soap and water is the best way to get rid of in most situations. Ensure that the ventilation system is operating properly and increase circulation from outdoors, especially if you're cleaning. And you can do this by opening the doors and windows using fans and in all matters consider the safety of your younger people or disabled people who may not have the same cognitive function as others their age. By this I mean make sure your chemicals are locked up and that you are not exposing people who have illnesses to harsh chemicals. You should never mix a bleach solution with another cleaner. So these are things to do after service. If you are going to have another service or use the place of worship for something else that same day, it's very important that you clean and disinfect in between activities. If the building is closed and will not be used for about nine days, which is beyond one week, then you don't have to be so detailed in your cleaning. But I'd like to just keep everything uniformed and if the building is cleaned them properly then you don't have to worry if something happens and you need to get into the building and the nine days hasn't passed. There are also legal considerations that you want to take into account. One person asked me what people really sue the church. Well I think, the answer is Malachi 3:8. Will a man rob God? The answer is yes. So you need to talk with your lawyer and talk with your insurance company representative if your place of worship has insurance, because you do incur some responsibility. The fact that the place of worship is exempt from some legal obligations, does not mean that the place of worship will be exempt from gross negligence. So you want to find out about these things before you get yourself into trouble. Because if you are not following some of the guidelines on the Health Department website, you may be in non-compliance with the law and if you are not following the law it may void any kind of insurance policy that you have and you could lose some of the protection that you may have in place otherwise. I like the idea of having a written policy. Making sure that people know your policy and then documenting that people have been trained and document that people are using the policy. We don't have to be perfect and never make mistakes, but we do have to be responsible and take some precautions.
Thank you for your attention. This has been a COVID-19 update with Dr. Hamilton-Stubbs. If you would like a copy of our free reopening places of worship during the pandemic ebook, you can download it at www.drhamiltonstubbs.com/covid-19. You will also find a free ebook that gives you information about the coronavirus and influenza. I included influenza because we will soon be going into our usual flu season and we will need to be prepared for both of these different types of infection. Thank you, it's been my pleasure to talk with you. This is our last COVID-19 update for now. It's been a blessing to serve you and may God have mercy us all.