Eastport United Methodist Church,
The Reentry Task Force had promised an updated decision by the end of February 2021, so after discussions within the team, we would like to advise the church and it’s tenants of the following update: * In the past few weeks, infections, hospitalizations and deaths related to COVID-19 are in decline. As of February 12th, positivity rates are in the single digits. We’re heading in the right direction!
*Our county has been lagging behind a bit in vaccinations, we are hoping that this will improve. * Once fully inoculated, it takes 2 or more weeks for the body to build up immunity. * New variants are spreading quickly (reportedly doubling every 10 days in the U.S.), and the efficacy of the vaccines against these new variants is not yet fully understood. * Vaccinated individuals can still become infected with Coronavirus (and therefore transfer it to others), but the vaccine-induced immunity will help to stave off full-blown symptoms. * Medical experts say that mask-wearing is still required, even for vaccinated individuals. For these reasons, we cannot yet consider it appropriate to hold in-person services. But, with the positive-trending number of infections and hospitalizations, we will revisit our decisions on a monthly basis and provide an update to the church and its tenants. We are grateful for your patience! With things looking up, it will be tempting to come flooding back to the building, but we will strive to continue to be the loving, caring community we’ve been through this pandemic and continue to worship and gather virtually, as best we can."
Re-Entry Team and Pastor Chris