ETHIOPIA: Clerics Commit to Lead in creating awareness after Meeting Health Minister

By CISA

ADDIS ABABA, MARCH 30, 2021 (CISA)-Religious leaders in the country have committed to teach their congregants on how to protect themselves from Covid-19 and also put measures in religious institutions to prevent the spread of infections.

This follows a meeting with the Minister of Health Dr. Lia Tadesse to discuss the rising number of infections and the role of the clergy in addressing the danger.

“We have discussed with Ethiopian religious leaders about the broadcasting of Covid-19 in our country,” Dr Tadesse reported to their meeting on March 24 while applauding religious leaders for committing to ensuring religious institutions conform to the set rules in fighting the pandemic.

“…Religious leaders have to teach their followers to protect themselves, to wear a mask and to keep their physical distance when they are meeting. In addition to this, all that religious institutions have requested to be implemented in every religious institution to be respected,” reads a Facebook post by the Ethiopian Catholic Secretariat following their meeting.

The clerics agreed to give the necessary leadership in every institution to prevent the transmission in prevention of pain the pandemic is causing accustomed by increasing number of related deaths.

The meeting comes as Ethiopia enforced strict coronavirus measures, banning travelers with COVID-19 positive status from entering the country for an indefinite time.

The Health Ministry said the new measures were introduced as the country grappled with an “alarming” increase in the number of cases.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading faster than ever,” Dr. Lia Tadesse had said adding more than 700 ICU beds have been exhausted and the country has no more capacity to admit critical patients.