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Hampton Roads churches loosening COVID-19 restrictions following state, CDC guidelines

With Virginia allowing fully vaccinated people to stop wearing masks in most settings, churches are starting to make changes at their services.

NORFOLK, Va. — Are you eager to sit closer to your fellow church members in the pews? 

Some churches in Hampton Roads aren't waiting to loosen restrictions, while others are slowly transitioning to a new normal.

At churches like Second Calvary Baptist Church in Norfolk, there's still social distancing required using markers on the pews. However, in just a couple weeks, the markers will be removed and more parishioners will be welcomed into the church.

Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Van Guns at the church said his congregation is gradually easing into a new normal. He told 13News Now he required all of his staff to get vaccinated, and hosted clinics to encourage more people to help reach herd immunity.

"We are open to the public and we invited people to come as families and to join us," Guns said.

Moving forward, Guns' church will still require masks for now, do temperature checks and have people register online through "Eventbrite" before attending the services. Guns said it's a way to help notify people quickly if any outbreak occurs, despite vaccinations.

"On April 12th we began to reintroduce the congregation to live worship," he said. "So, the goal is that by the time we get to the first Sunday in June, we'll be able to have 200 people present."

RELATED: To mask or not to mask? CDC guidance on COVID-19 changes, but here are places where Virginians, North Carolinians still need one.

Trinity Church is one of the largest congregations in Hampton Roads with several locations. The church's Executive Pastor, Tommie Bozich, said he won't have strict rules for his parishioners.

Bozich said they were following the honor code, and are trusting those who choose not to wear masks are fully vaccinated.

"We're not going to police it, so Sunday we started where we're not policing it.... but those things everybody knows about," Bozich said. "So, we don't have any plans to do a slow roll or anything. We're just going by what the CDC and the governor says."

Pastors like Bozich said members of their congregation have been reaching out, curious about the newest mandates, since the CDC and Virginia really left the options up to individual organizations and businesses. 

While church leaders are choosing different paths to try to return to pre-pandemic ways, they said they were looking forward to being close to their community members once again.

 

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