It is true that close public gatherings spread germs more easily than other venues. However, with proper measures, the risk of germ spreading can be significantly moderated. One example is with Churches, that while they are known to spread germs, proper safety procedures have significantly to almost completely taken the dangers of spreading germs, in the current case COVID, to almost nothing.
That said, the Chinese government is not letting a crisis ‘go to waste’ as according to Asia News, the COVID pandemic has been used to blanket shut down churches and suppress religious activity, as part of a trend that has been amplified for several years now and continues to worsen.
The Covid-19 epidemic has reappeared in Hebei, the province surrounding Beijing. From 2 January until last night, over 800 positive cases were recorded. And although the origin of this new wave is not yet known, the Chinese Communist Party is blaming religious activities.
The series of new cases has emerged primarily in the countryside and villages, which are lacking prevention and medical services. But the fear is now that the pandemic will spread to the provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, which has already registered 771 cases, and from there to the state capital, Beijing. With this fear, the authorities launched a mass vaccination campaign (photo 1). In just three days, over 10 million people were vaccinated and all the inhabitants of the city (11.3 million) were tested.
Vice-premier Sun Chunlan (photo 2) visited the province from January 15 to 18 and urgently urged local authorities to implement preventive measures: control of travel to Beijing; within the province and in key areas, and above all “suspend religious gatherings” because “holding religious activities during the epidemic causes the spread of the virus”.
However, she too admits that “the origin of the epidemic in Hebei is unknown” and invites “public security departments, industries and technology control offices to carry out epidemiological investigations”. (source)