Pandemic Response Update
/The church council has received and unanimously approved the following statement and criteria from the pandemic task force concerning a return to in-person worship in the building:
The pandemic task force has considered the current guidance from public health officials as well as the rising number of cases in our community due to the highly infectious Delta variant of Covid-19 and has recommended to the church council that we continue to worship outside for as long as temperatures allow. Until vaccines are available for all ages and additional shots are available for the most vulnerable among us, it simply isn’t safe, even masked, to gather indoors for worship. Close contact, singing, passing the peace, and celebrating the sacraments inside would be high risk activities. Knowing that even vaccinated people can transmit the virus to others, these activities are simply too dangerous. It is absolutely imperative that we limit the spread of this disease and ease the pressure on our exhausted health systems.
The task force had identified the following metrics as a baseline for a return to in-person worship in the building:
the availability of vaccines for those of all ages,
a clear and steady decline of cases across the state and in Kent and Ottawa counties over a period of one month (with 1000 cases per day statewide as a benchmark for counting),
and a declining positivity rate of four percent (4 %) or less in both Kent and Ottawa counties.
These metrics are based on recommendations from the CDC and other public health entities. The pandemic task force will continue to meet regularly and evaluate the best data and guidance available to us from trusted sources. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the task force by email at pandemic@stjohnsuccgr.org.
