A Sacramento area church is reportedly at the center of a local outbreak of the novel coronavirus. County health officials claimed this week that at least 71 members of the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church on Jackson Highway In Sacramento County near Rancho Cordova have tested positive for COVID-19.
Health officials said that church leaders did not take seriously the stay-at-home order issued by the Sacramento County Health Officer to stay at home and that some members of the church are still meeting in small groups.
At least one person claiming to be a member of the church tried to reassure neighbors on the Next Door app that the church had closed and members of the congregation were asked not to gather elsewhere. However, he also insisted that church leaders can only do so much, and they can't prevent members from holding impromptu meetings at home.
"While we know that the church as a whole has ceased to meet and the leadership is hosting online services, we have been told by multiple sources that there are groups that continue to meet in homes, despite the public health order to not gather with anyone outside of household members," said a county spokesperson. "These gatherings have been directly linked to the clusters of cases in the community."
Sacramento County officials stressed that their concern with this stituationSacramento County officials emphasized that despite their concern about this situation, they do not condone ridicule, hatred or violence toward the church, the members, any other church or any member of society. Their only goal is to achieve compliance with the public health order not to gather in groups to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the county.
Officials report that a third of the county's confirmed cases have been linked to church gatherings.