MIAMI _ Lucy Jackson has always enjoyed the camaraderie and the rituals of her Catholic religion. So much so, she regularly goes to two churches near her Kendall, Fla., home: St. Thomas The Apostle Catholic Church or John Neumann Catholic Church.
"If I want to sleep in longer, I go to St. John at 1," she laughs.
But one cherished ritual has already changed in the wake of coronavirus.
"We don't hold hands together and we don't give a kiss for the peace-be-with-you part," said Jackson, 68, a home services caretaker for the elderly. "We can throw the kiss, but that's it. We don't put the faces together."
On Tuesday, Jackson received a text alert in Spanish from St. Thomas about new health practices recommended by the Archdiocese of Miami. Among them: no more hand-holding during services, ministers are using anti-bacterial soap more, and churches have temporarily suspended sacramental wine during Holy Communion.
The Archdiocese also told parishioners not to hold hands during the "Our Father" prayer, and it's emptying the holy water fonts at the church doors.
The Episcopal faith, too, has discouraged hugging during the peace greeting.
"(During the) sharing of the Peace: waving is perfectly acceptable in place of shaking hands or hugging," Episcopal Relief & Development said in a summary of "faith-based responses" to COVID-19.
And it's asking those who receive Holy Communion not to dip the host into the chalice of wine.
"They don't just drip the bread; they dip their fingernails," said the Rev. Canon John Tidy with the Episcopal Diocese of Southeast Florida. "So the chalice becomes their own Petri dish."
This is all coming during the 40-day period known as Lent, the holiest period in the Christian faith.
South Florida's Christian communities aren't the only one making changes.
Several mosques have transformed their Friday prayer gatherings into coronavirus information sessions with medical professionals addressing the congregations' concerns.
"The one thing that you really don't need is a mass hysteria," said Naveed Anjum, the vice chair of the Islamic School of Miami in west Kendall.
Restricting travel has been emphasized, particularly with Ramadan less than two months away. Millions of Muslims make pilgrimages to Mecca in Saudi Arabia during Ramadan, one of the most sacred periods of the year.
"They don't need to go to the places where we expect that a lot of folks will be attending," Anjum added.
Last week, Saudi Arabia halted travel to Mecca and said it was not allowing people to travel to Prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina, Al Jazeera reported. Saudi Arabia reported its first confirmed coronavirus case, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
At South Florida mosques, the daily religious rituals won't change much. Practicing Muslims pray five times a day _ and adherents will continue to perform their ablutions, or the ceremonial act of washing, during prayers.
"We wash our hands, mouth, feet _ we make ourselves clean before we pray," said Khalid Mirza, president of the Muslim Communities Association of South Florida.
All these acts are aimed at limiting person-to-person contact, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated as the primary way that the virus spreads.
Not all religious groups are changing.
Rabbi Frederick Klein, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Miami, was unaware of any changes in services or practices at any synagogues in Miami-Dade due to the virus, according to a Greater Miami Jewish Federation spokesman.
As The New York Times noted, there are four factors that determine how the virus circulates: how close you get to the infected person, how long you are near that person, whether an infected person spews "respiratory droplets" _ or microbes projected on a person during sneezing or coughing _ and how often you touch your face.
Health officials have not yet agreed on what qualifies as "close." The CDC contends the virus can be transmitted when people are within 6 feet from one another; the World Health Organization says 3 feet. Experts agree that a person's risk increases the more time he or she spends around an infected person.
Those more likely to become infected are "people who have a lot of contact with other people," said Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, a professor at Florida International University's Department of Epidemiology.
The virus can also be transmitted by rubbing one's face after touching contaminated surfaces or objects, although the CDC says that's not common. A recent study found some strains of the virus stayed on various surfaces from two hours to nine days.
As a healthcare worker who worked with kids for decades and, for more than 10 years, with seniors, Jackson had already begun to stop drinking from the communal chalice at St. Thomas.
"Because I take care of older people I have to take care of myself," she said. "That's why I have my flu shot every year. I don't want to give it to them. The older people are more susceptible."
