COVID-19: Re-entry Guidance

NWC Presbytery offers a set of Re-entry Guidelines for congregations in Northwest Coast Presbytery in abbreviated and more detailed forms.  We have also added a document offering strategies for member/participant compliance to COVID-19 Safety Protocols.

 SINGING DURING COVID-19

Even when we might return to our worship sanctuaries in limited numbers, singing indoors, even with a mask, is a major health risk and won't be doable until a vaccine is widely available and widely used. More perspective on this:

Summary comments and a link to a video about singing in church from colleagues in Wisconsin an Pennsylvania for your reflection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=DFl3GsVzj6Q&feature=emb_title. A few notes and summary comments on singing and aerosol transmission from Wisconsin Council of Churches:  

—Just breathing produces aerosols.  
—Talking produces 10x.  Loud volume, more.
—Humming inferred to be intermediate between talking & singing - nothing in the literature.
—Singing produces 60x.  Loud volume/projecting, more.
—Wind instruments produce more, depending on type.  It's a matter of air volume, sound, acoustic frequency.
—Singing creates very fine aerosols that stay in the air for hours, move with air currents, and remain infectious for hours.
—Cloth masks are not effective in protecting against the fine kind of aerosol produced by singing - either in or out.
—Recommendation from public health: do not sing indoors in public until a vaccine is produced. Nor should we use wind instruments. 
—Suggested alternatives: piano, keyboard, drums, strings, recorded music.  Singers in one household could record something to play in church.