COVID-19 Changes Easter Observances

Christians around the world are celebrating Easter Sunday, but their observances are different this year because of COVID-19.Instead of going to church, many are participating in virtual observances of one of Christianity’s holiest of days as much of the world has been ordered to stay home to curb the tide of the virus.Pope Francis will livestream his Mass from the Vatican.Some defiant U.S. ministers, however, have said they are inviting worshippers to come to their churches, even though their cities have a shelter in place order and have banned large gatherings.The U.S. is leading the world in cases and deaths due to the virus.  The Johns Hopkins Resource Center reports the U.S. has more than half a million cases and more than 20,000 deaths.To help stem the spread of the virus in hard-hit New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city’s public schools would remain closed through the end of the school year for the 1.1 million children in the city’s system.De Blasio said the decision was “painful” but said, “I can also tell you [it] is the right thing to do. It will clearly help us save lives.”However, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said later that de Blasio did not have the authority to close the schools.Rev. Shahid Mehraj leads an Easter Mass live-streamed from Cathedral Church of the Resurrection due to a government-imposed lockdown to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus, in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, April 12, 2020. The new coronavirus…The World Health Organization said Saturday that it was examining reports of recovered COVID-19 patients testing positive again in South Korea as they were about to be discharged from hospitals.Jeong Eun-kyeong, director of South Korea’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters the virus might have been “reactivated” in 91 patients instead of their being reinfected.WHO said in a statement, “We are aware of these reports of individuals who have tested negative for COVID-19 using PCR [polymerase chain reaction] testing and then after some days testing positive again.”The organization said it was “closely liaising with our clinical experts and working hard to get more information on those individual cases.”South Korean health officials said epidemiological investigations were underway to determine the causes of the apparent reactivations.As WHO and countries throughout the world grapple with containing the pandemic, the coronavirus continues its spread as billions of people on lockdown celebrate Easter weekend from their homes.There were more than 1.76 million cases and more than 108,000 deaths worldwide – in 193 countries — as of Saturday afternoon, according to Hopkins’ statistics.U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that deciding when to reopen the country would be “the biggest decision I’ve ever had to make” and that he would weigh the pros and cons of the decision with his health and economic advisers.What was not clear, however, was whether all the states would follow what Trump said. Trump did not officially close down the country, leaving each governor, instead, to decide for his or her state.Trump has said he would like the country opened up again on May 1, despite a warning from the WHO Friday that lifting lockdown measures too quickly could trigger a “deadly resurgence” of the coronavirus.Trump acknowledged Friday the possibility of higher death tolls if businesses reopened too soon, saying, “But you know what? Staying at home leads to death also.”Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious-diseases expert, told CNN that “the virus kind of decides whether it’s appropriate to open or not.” He cautioned that moving too early could result in another surge of infections.The nationwide lockdown in Argentina that was set to end on Sunday has been extended to April 26. President Alberto Fernandez made the announcement Saturday, when he also said travel restrictions would be eased in some areas in coming days.As the virus spreads and death tolls climb, many public health experts throughout the world believe fatalities are much higher than has been reported, because postmortem testing has been limited. Some COVID-19 deaths were not attributed to the disease, they think, and other deaths go unreported because of homelessness and other factors.China continued to report low numbers of new cases of the virus Friday, saying Hubei province, where the virus originated, logged zero new cases, while the rest of China recorded 46 new cases.A Chinese study suggested that coronavirus particles can travel up to 4 meters from infected patients. The WHO recommends that people stay at least 1 meter away from someone who is sneezing, while the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a distance of about 2 meters.The study, published Friday in the CDC publication Emerging Infectious Diseases, was conducted February 10 to March 2 in two hospitals in Wuhan.A study conducted in the U.S. by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that sneezes and coughs could spread the virus more than 8.2 meters.
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