{"id":6767,"date":"2020-05-29T16:29:05","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T16:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=6767"},"modified":"2020-05-29T16:29:05","modified_gmt":"2020-05-29T16:29:05","slug":"changes-for-worship-weddings-and-funerals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/05\/29\/changes-for-worship-weddings-and-funerals\/","title":{"rendered":"CHANGES FOR WORSHIP, WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More people can attend religious services, weddings and funerals from 1 June but worshippers will be asked to maintain social distancing and changes to communal practices will be required.<br \/>\nPremier Gladys Berejiklian said from Monday, up to 20 people can attend weddings, 50 at funerals and 50 at places of worship, subject to the four square metre rule.<br \/>\n\u201cWe know how important these services are to individuals and families but as we ease restrictions further, we must remember to keep one another safe,\u201d Ms Berejiklian said.<br \/>\n\u201cIt is crucial that worshippers remember to follow health advice. This is particularly important for people with co-morbidities aged over 50 and people aged over 70.\u201d<br \/>\nHealth Minister Brad Hazzard said extensive COVID-19 outbreaks in places of worship and amongst choirs\u2019 overseas highlights why the NSW Government has been cautious in easing restrictions.<br \/>\n\u201cSadly, we have seen many congregations of different faiths and denominations affected by COVID-19 overseas,\u201d Mr Hazzard said.<br \/>\n\u201cNSW Health has developed a checklist to help places of worship create a tailored COVID-19 Safety Plan to ensure they can keep participants as safe as possible.<br \/>\n\u201cThese safety plans cover topics such as physical distancing measures, hand hygiene and extensive cleaning measures, it is also vital that people who are unwell stay at home.\u201d<br \/>\nNSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said while people would be familiar with many general measures in the plan, others are more specific to places of worship.<br \/>\n\u201cPlaces of worship will be asked to find alternatives to practices that might spread the virus like singing, sharing books and even passing around the collection plate to reduce infection risks,\u201d Dr Chant said.<br \/>\n\u201cCommunal singing and chanting should not occur because of the high risk of transmission of the virus. Instead, measures such as one singer standing at least three metres away from others would be safer.\u201d<br \/>\nFurther information is available at\u00a0<a href=\"file:\/\/\/C:\/Users\/hglenn\/AppData\/Local\/Microsoft\/Windows\/INetCache\/Content.Outlook\/OCFY22O3\/nsw.gov.au\/covid-19\">nsw.gov.au\/covid-19<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More people can attend religious services, weddings and funerals from 1 June but worshippers will be asked to maintain social distancing and changes to communal practices will be required. Premier Gladys Berejiklian said from Monday, up to 20 people can attend weddings, 50 at funerals and 50 at places of worship, subject to the four &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/05\/29\/changes-for-worship-weddings-and-funerals\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;CHANGES FOR WORSHIP, WEDDINGS AND FUNERALS&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6767\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}