THUNDER BAY - The Thunder Bay District Health Unit is offering guidance on COVID-19 precautions for weddings, funerals, and religious services. Bans on those activities were lifted on June 12 when Thunder Bay entered Stage 2 of Ontario's reopening framework, but restrictions - and risk - remain.
A list of rules and best practices contained in a four-page document released by the health unit will leave many religious services looking dramatically different.
Provincial emergency orders limit attendance to 30 per cent of capacity for indoor spaces, while setting a 50-person limit outdoors. Individuals from different households must still maintain six feet of distance from others. To that end, the health unit advises blocking off alternate rows of seating.
The pandemic poses challenges to many religious rituals and traditions. Attendees must avoid shared items, such as drinking from the same chalice, passing around collection baskets or candles, kissing sacred items, or using shared prayer mats.
The health unit also advised religious groups to continue suspending indoor singing such as choirs, as well as children's services. As well, greetings from faith leaders before and after services must be held outdoors and away from entrances.
The health unit encouraged religious communities to consider holding drive-in services. Even then, restrictions remain on minimum distance between vehicles, interactions with participants, and the number of officiants allowed.
Religious groups that do reopen are encouraged to post signage throughout buildings, directional markers on floors to control flow, clean more frequently, make hand sanitizer available, and strongly encourage mask wearing by all who are able.
Weddings and funerals face new rules of their own. Ceremonies may be held indoors based on the same 30 per cent capacity restrictions.
Receptions, however, are more strictly regulated. For weddings, they're limited to 10 people, including officiants. Funeral receptions held in a funeral home may accommodate up to 30 per cent of the space's capacity, but otherwise are also limited to 10 people. And food served must be pre-wrapped and handed to attendees by funeral home staff.
