Pastors arrested for holding services filled with ‘worshippers’

Two pastors are due to appear in court in Haiti this week after they were arrested on Sunday for conducting services at churches in violation of the health measures prohibiting any gathering of more than 10 people as a means to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Law enforcement authorities confirmed that Joseph Bertony Brunache of the Church of God in Bordes, on the outskirt of the capital, and Carl Sunday of the Church of Living God were detained on Sunday after their churches were filled with worshippers.

Haiti, like a number of Caribbean countries, has implemented a number of measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus that was first detected in China last December.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Health said the French-speaking Caribbean island had recorded three new cases of the coronavirus in the West department, with two cases in Pétion-ville and the other in Croix-des-Bouquets.

The new cases bring to 88 the number of infected people the island has recorded since the start of the epidemic here on March 19. There have been 10 deaths as a result of the virus that has killed more than 240,000 and infected nearly three and a half million globally.

The health authorities said that 245 people are quarantined in hospitals and 573 others are in quarantine at their homes.