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SINGAPORE: Starting this Friday (December 11), five mosques will each offer 250 spaces for Friday prayers, the Singapore Islamic Religious Council (MUIS) said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Each of the selected mosques will offer five prayer zones of 50 people per zone for each Friday prayer session.
The five mosques are Masjid Al-Islah in Punggol, Masjid Al-Istighfar in Pasir Ris, Masjid Darul Ghufran in Tampines, Masjid Assyafaah in Admiralty and Masjid Al-Khair in Choa Chu Kang.
“With this increase, there are a total of 19,365 spaces available in our mosques each week,” MUIS said.
Mosques in Singapore have been gradually increasing the number of spaces available for Friday prayers. Limits have been placed on the number of parishioners in places of worship as part of distancing measures from COVID-19.
READ: 10 mosques to gradually increase the number of faithful to 250; TraceTogether is required
Prayer goers are “strongly encouraged” to use the TraceTogether app or token at any of the 40 mosques that accept TraceTogether SafeEntry registrations, MUIS added.
The spaces on December 11 and December 18 are open only to those who did not have prayer reservations on Friday, November 20 or later. Reservations can be made through ourmosques.commonspaces.sg or Muslim.sg app starting Tuesday at 10am. M.
Same-day reservations are also open to all parishioners every Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for any remaining space available, MUIS said.
Congregants who feel unwell or unable to attend Friday’s prayer session can cancel their reservation at least one hour before their session begins via the link in their confirmation email or via ourmosques.commonspaces.sg/ check-booking-confirmation.
The mosques resumed congregational worship services as of June 26 after a “breaker” period of nearly two months. Online reservations were required due to a limit on the number of people allowed per session.
The five mosques are part of a pilot program, involving a total of 10 mosques, to gradually increase the number of worshipers to 250 per session by the end of the year.
The government announced in September that it was progressively easing measures for religious activities and services.
Worshipers attending Friday prayers at the mosques involved in the pilot should use the TraceTogether app or token as an additional precaution, MUIS said in the initial announcement on Nov. 1.
He added that TraceTogether would also allow the location of a possible infection and allow mosques to professionally clean and disinfect only the frequented area when a case of COVID-19 is detected.
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