KINGSTON, Jamaica — The reopening of churches continued apace today (Sunday, May 17) as many church members, as is usual, donned their finest to give thanks and praises inside their particular sanctuary of worship.

The green light for the reopening of churches amid efforts to curtail the spread of COVID-19 in the island was given last week Monday by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.

At the time the prime minister stressed that the ease of the restrictions for churches to reopen came with specific guidelines which must be followed.

This morning when the OBSERVER ONLINE team went on the road in Kingston all the churches were doing temperature checks, providing sanitising stations and observing the social distancing rules both inside and outside of church buildings.

At the iconic Kingston Parish Church located on King Street in downtown Kingston, members congregated from early and were guided by the various protocols stipulated by the Government.

At the Praise City International Church in Trench Town, church leaders were manning the various entrances doing temperature checks and sanitising those allowed to enter.

At the East Queen Street Baptist Church chairman of the Deacon Board Gary Soares told OBSERVER ONLINE that they had done everything thing possible to meet the various guidelines.

“We are doing temperature checks and hand sanitising before allowing members to enter.

“You have to understand that a lot of our members are up in age and as result we have to take special care of them.

“For us, here, at the East Queen Street Baptist Church it is a case of first come, first served, once members pass the various health tests,” Soares said.