The health department asked parishioners at the Charleston church to isolate themselves.
A church in Charleston, West Virginia, moved its online face-to-face service after at least 24 congregants tested positive for the new coronavirus.
The Kanawha-Charleston Health Department announced Wednesday that it has tracked the two dozen COVID-19 cases at the North Charleston Apostolic Church.
The outbreak has affected residents of Kanawha, Putnam and Logan counties. Kanawha County reported the most, with 19 positive cases.
“We don’t want to discourage people from going to church … but COVID-19 is still out there and we have to be very careful,” said Dr. Sherri Young, health officer and executive director of the Kanawha Health Department. -Charleston. she said in a statement.
Church leaders said they will close for three weeks “to carry out a deep cleanup throughout the building” and have asked congregations to isolate themselves, according to health officials.
The North Charleston Apostolic Church did not respond to a request for comment.
The church will now broadcast prerecorded sermons on its website on Sunday morning and Wednesday night.
Young recommended anyone who attends in-person services anywhere to “wear your mask, keep six feet between yourself and other parishioners, and wash your hands frequently.”
West Virginia was the last state in the United States to report a coronavirus case. To date, more than 3.4 million Americas have tested positive for the virus, more than 137,000 have died, and more than 1 million have recovered.
As of Wednesday, the state had 4,557 confirmed cases and 98 deaths, according to health officials.
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