A church gathering for the holidays has sent many attendees into quarantine.
What We Know:
- Over the weekend of December 5th, the First Baptist Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina, held a multi-day holiday celebration. Now, a statement from the Henderson County Department of Public Health has linked 97 cases of COVID-19 to attendees.
- The number of cases caused by the event is expected to grow. The health department has confirmed that some of the attendees have been hospitalized for COVID-19 complications. However, it is unclear if any of the cases related to the gathering have resulted in death.
- On December 15th, The First Baptist Church instituted a 30-day break from on-site worship, including “all ministry activities.” Although the church did not specifically address the outbreak, they did release a statement saying “The current wave of virus infection is so widespread that we must take action out of concern for the safety of our church, our community, and especially those who are most vulnerable in our midst”
“We will look at conditions in mid-January to see how and when we should move forward,” the statement continued.
- According to North Carolina’s health department, Henderson County’s current limit on indoor social gatherings is 10 people in an effort to combat the spread of COVID-19. However, this restriction does not apply to spaces of “worship, religious, [or] spiritual gatherings.”
Since the start of the pandemic, Henderson County has seen over 4,000 coronavirus cases and at least 89 deaths.
