5 mosques to offer 250 spaces each for Friday prayers from Dec 11

SINGAPORE — From this Friday (Dec 11), five mosques will each offer 250 spaces for Friday prayers, the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) said in a Facebook post on Monday. 

Each of the selected mosques will offer five prayer zones of 50 people per zone for every 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, a total of 19,365 spaces are available at our mosques each week," said Muis. 

Mosques in Singapore have been gradually increasing the number of spaces available at Friday prayers. Limits have been placed on the number of congregants at places of worship as part of Covid-19 distancing measures.

Those attending the prayers are "highly encouraged" to use the TraceTogether app or token at any of the 40 mosques accepting TraceTogether SafeEntry check-ins, Muis added. 

The slots on Dec 11 and Dec 18 are open only to those who had no Friday prayer bookings on Nov 20 or later. Bookings can be made via ourmosques.commonspaces.sg or the Muslim.sg app from Tuesday at 10am. 

Same-day bookings are also open to all congregants every Friday from 10am to 2pm for any available remaining spaces, said Muis. 

Congregants who feel unwell or are unable to attend the Friday prayer session can cancel their booking at least one hour before their session starts through the link on their confirmation email or via ourmosques.commonspaces.sg/check-booking-confirmation. 

Mosques resumed congregational worship services from Jun 26 after a nearly two-month-long "circuit breaker" period. Online bookings were required due to a limit on the number of individuals permitted per session. 

The five mosques are part of a pilot, which involves a total of 10 mosques, to gradually increase the number of worshippers to 250 per session by the end of the year. 

The Government announced in September it was progressively easing measures for religious activities and services.

Worshippers attending Friday prayers at the mosques involved in the pilot would be required to use the TraceTogether app or token as added precaution, said Muis in the initial announcement on Nov 1.

It added that TraceTogether would also allow for the localisation of possible infection and enable mosques to professionally clean and disinfect only the area frequented when a Covid-19 case is detected. CNA

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