What Should Churches Do Now That COVID-19 Is Spiking Again

With COVID-19 rates spiking in communities across the country, many churches are wondering what this means for their reopening plans.

Some churches have decided not to reopen until 2021, but others have already met inside or outdoors, have a return date set in the near future, or are still in the process of determining when and how to gather in person again.

No matter where your church falls along this continuum, it’s important to continually seek out up-to-date data and research and to humbly integrate this information into an ongoing decision-making process.

Here are three ideas to consider as you and other leaders prayerfully make decisions regarding your church. Read More

I have not reviewed Guide to Reopening Church Services so I cannot comment on it favorably or unfavorably. However, I do believe that the advice offered in this article is sound. Public health emergencies like the present one require flexibility of mind, particularly when it involves a disease that is completely new to us. Viruses mutate. They can become more infectious and spread more quickly. They can become more virulent and take more lives. We should not be basing reopening decisions on out-dated information. In March it was thought that young people, if they were not immune to the COVID-19 coronavirus, suffered only mild symptoms. University students went on spring break with that idea in their heads. Now we know that the virus can make young people seriously ill and, even if they experience negligible symptoms, they can spread the disease to more vulnerable segments of the population. Poor ventilation and singing and loud talking have been implicated in the virus' spread. We have been introduced to the esoteric subject of toilet plumes and the role that they may play in COVID-19 transmission. I posted the following comment in response to article on the Church Leaders website on Summit Church's plan to split into small "house churches" for the rest of 2020:

Meeting in smaller gatherings makes sense since it would be easier to do contact tracing with small gatherings. But unless those hosting these gatherings implement necessary precautionary measures, these gathering can still become epicenters of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Splitting into smaller groups by itself will not reduce transmission risks. To reduce transmissions risks, those hosting these gatherings will need to implement several layers of intervention—face masks at all times, social distancing, no food sharing, hand washing, decontamination of frequently touched surfaces, no singing or loud talking, proper ventilation of meeting place—doors and windows open, air not recirculated in the room but replaced with fresh air from the outside, etc., ventilation and decontamination of bathrooms after each use, and instruction of attendees in the proper use of the toilet, i.e., close the toilet lid before flushing. Implementing these layers of intervention take considerable effort and overtime those hosting a small gathering and those attending the small gathering are likely to become lax in their implementation, thereby increasing the transmission risks.

The Coronavirus Information and Resources posted on the Summit Church also do not take into consideration the latest research on how COVID-19 is spread. A recent study found that older school age children—those 10 years or age and older—spread the virus as much as adults do if not more so. They are more likely to infect members of their household more than any other household member except senior adults in their 70s. The research also shows that younger children are not immune to COVID-19. At the present time their role in spread the virus is not fully understand. When they are infected with the virus, they do breathe the virus into the air. Their height may be a factor in why they do not infect more adults. However, child care attendants who squat down at a younger child’s level would be at risk of infection. Airborne particles like COVID-19 particles can remain suspended in the air for up to three hours under controlled, research conditions. Some air conditioning systems that use floor level registers can waft the particles higher up into the air and unless the stale air is exhausted and replaced with fresh air from the outside, these particles will continue to circulate in the air of the room.

Studies of COVID-19 particle concentration levels in the air of hospital rooms found that they were high in mechanically ventilated rooms and low in naturally ventilated rooms, those with doors and windows open and a breeze bringing fresh air into the room. Bathrooms had the highest virus particle concentration levels. This was attributed to what has been described as “toilet plumes,” columns of air that rise when a toilet is flushed with the toilet lid open. People infected with COVID-19 not only breathe virus particles into the air but they also shed them in their urine and feces. Hospital bathrooms are also poorly ventilated small, enclosed spaces, the kind of space that has high transmission risks.

Church restrooms are a logistical nightmare for churches seeking to reduce transmission risks. They are poorly ventilated. The toilets often do not have lids. Toilet stalls can trap COVID-19 virus particles released while an infected person occupies the stall and when the toilet is flushed so that the next person to occupy the stall sits down in a cloud of these particle lingering in the air and inhales the particles while using the toilet. By splitting into smaller “house churches” the Summit Church is passing the logistical problem on to those hosting the “house churches” in their homes.

In The Coronavirus Information and Resources posted on its website the Summit Church does not advise those hosting the “house churches” to screen those who will be attending these gatherings to ensure that they and the other members of their households are conforming to state and local government guidance and that they or other members of their households do not have a fever or other symptoms of the virus, to take contact information them for contact tracing in event a “house church” becomes the nexus of new COVID-19 cases, or to notify the hosts if they or another member of their household or someone else with whom they have close or frequent contact develops symptoms or tests positive. The Summit Church also encourages church members to invite neighbors to their homes to watch their online services but offers very little guidance on what precautionary measures that they should take to keep these informal gatherings from spreading the virus. In the Commonwealth of Kentucky backyard barbecues and similar gatherings have been implicated in the surge of new COVID-19 cases in the state.