COVID-19: Bahrain delays mosque reopening again
Postponement is due to spike in coronavirus infections, deaths
Cairo: Bahrain has delayed again the reopening of mosques for fear of the spread of the new coronavirus due to congregations amid a spike in cases.
The country’s Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs unanimously decided at an online meeting Wednesday to keep the mosques closed and continue to suspend group prayers inside them.
The council said that the causes on the basis of which Friday and daily congregation prayers in mosques were suspended are still there. The medical agencies cited a “marked’ increase in infections and deaths from COVID-19 in June compared to the previous months, mostly due to mixing and human gatherings, it added in a statement.
“Therefore, the council emphasises the necessity of delay in reopening mosques and the return of group worshipping [to them] until the curve of the disease spread decreases,” it said, according to Bahraini newspaper Al Bilad.
The decision will be reviewed every two weeks by the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, the National Task Team for Confronting COVID-19, the Ministry of Justice and Islamic Affairs as well as the Sunni and Jaafari endowment departments.
Participating in the Wednesday meeting were the minister of justice and Islamic affairs, heads of the Sunni and Jaafari endowments that oversee mosques in Bahrain as well as the chairman of the National Task Team for Confronting COVID-19.
Last month, Bahrain postponed the reopening of mosques, which was originally scheduled for June 5, due to an increase in virus cases.
Bahrain so far has reported a tally of 26,758 coronavirus infections and 91 fatalities.