Mosques ordered closed indefinitely as COVID cluster emerges

Muslims resorted to home worship for Friday prayers on the holiest day of the week, after health authorities ordered the immediate closure of all mosques as an initial outbreak of COVID-19 continues to grow.

Secretary of the Muslim Association of Barbados Sulieman Bulbulia told Barbados TODAY: “The numbers have been increasing in the community and I guess out of an abundance of caution, they did not want them to continue on that trajectory. The mosques really are not the places where they have started; obviously they have started in families which are close-knit; as you know, most of our families are close-knit.”

It is understood that this cluster has affected at least 80 possible contacts, but Bulbuliah said while he was not certain of the final number, his last known figure was 65.

“We are a microcosm of the wider society and with the numbers rising in the society, our community would likely be impacted as well. We are not in a bubble; we are part and parcel of the Barbadian society,” the Muslim spokesman pointed out.

Bulbuliah also drew attention to the way in which their worship would be affected.

“We worship five times a day with the main weekly worship on Fridays,” he said. “So it does affect that and people do go to the mosques; it is not that they don’t. They would mainly go to the mosques on Fridays, but would also go for the five-time daily prayers. So what we would have to do is have our prayers in our homes. We would have to prayer at home with our own families as was during the lockdown.”

The closure will affect the mosques at Belleville, Sobers Lane and Kensington New Road in St. Michael, Clairmont, St. James and Harts Gap, Christ Church.

He said he was unaware of the length of time the closure would last.

It was understood that the COVID-19 Monitoring Unit had visited the mosques following an earlier outbreak.

On Thursday, another COVID-19 patient died – the fourth in three days – bringing the toll to 64, while 167 new cases were reported and 857 people were in isolation.

Of the 64 new cases, 38 are under age 18 while 129 were 18 years and over.

(emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb)