St Andrew's Cathedral has announced its closure for 16 days after a member of the church was confirmed to have Covid-19.

A notice of the closure was posted to their social media platforms on Wednesday (Mar. 18).

https://www.instagram.com/p/B93rgUmHFFR/

The church — which is Singapore's oldest Anglican house of worship — will be closed from 11:59pm on Mar. 18 to 11:59pm Apr. 3.

The infected member had attended the church's 9am English service held in the Cathedral New Sanctuary last Sunday (Mar. 15).

He had shown no symptoms of illness and also passed a precautionary screening prior to joining the service.

The screening included health and travel declarations and temperature checks, according to the church.

The notice also reminded congregants to follow the Ministry of Health's (MOH) advice and verify the authenticity of any calls regarding contact tracing.

Two churches previously linked to spread

St Andrew's Cathedral's notice comes on the same day that MOH announced 47 new cases of Covid-19 in Singapore — the highest single-day jump in confirmed cases reported so far.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had previously advised the need to shorten religious services or reduce the number of attendees on Mar. 12.

A day later, Minister for Health and co-chair of the multi-ministry task force on Covid-19 Gan Kim Yong advised organisers of private mass gatherings, such as religious services, to reduce the number of attendees to 250 or less, if possible.

PM Lee had cited the case of the Shincheonji church in South Korea as an example of how the virus could be spread within religious communities.

In Singapore, two churches have already experienced outbreaks: The Life Church and Missions with 10 cases, and Grace Assemblies of God with 23 cases.

Top image by Tony Hisgett via Flickr