Health officials in Shasta County, California, have praised pastor Paul Tilley and his Faith Assembly Church in Redding for how they responded to a coronavirus outbreak at the church that left one person dead.
“We are impressed with how proactive the church has been since learning about the first case in their congregation,” Brandy Isola, the county’s public health branch director, told the Record Searchlight.
“We have community transmission in Shasta County. We recognize that there is less than ideal testing capacity in our county, state and country. This means that there are cases of COVID-19 in our community that Public Health has not been notified about. It is critically important that everyone stay at home except for essential services, follow social distancing practices when it is necessary to go out and practice excellent hygiene,” she said.
Tilley told the Record Searchlight that once he heard a member of his congregation tested positive for the coronavirus, he contacted Shasta County health officials on March 23 — the same day he heard of the exposure — “to give them a detailed account of how I handled the crisis.”
The member, who has been identified as a 75-year-old woman, has since died.
Shasta County Health and Human Services officials revealed there has since been a “higher than expected number of positive cases” associated with the church.
Warnings were also issued to other members who “may be at higher risk of carrying COVID-19, particularly if they attended a weekend event there (at the church) on March 14 and 15, and they should inform their close contacts and social circles that they may have been exposed,” health officials said.
SOURCE: Christian Post, Leonardo Blair
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