COVID-19 in Mozambique: Religious denominations and their adaptations during and after the state of emergency

ABSTRACTBackground: To stop the spread of COVID-19, religious denominations in Mozambique have had to complywith government orders; this has forced them to close their places of worship. The study aims to understand themeasures taken by Mozambique‘s religious denominations in order to continue to hold worship services duringand after the state of emergency, as a means to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods: This study was quantitative and involved collecting data through an online survey from 1174participants representing Mozambique’s religious denominations.Results: The study found that religious denominations in Mozambique had significantly shifted their worshipservices to social media platforms and other communication avenues. However, some religious believers stillinsistently organised small congregations, irrespective of the state of emergency declaration in Mozambique.Conclusions: A significant portion of Mozambican religious believers have acknowledged the COVID-19 stateof emergency. However, a small proportion is in breach of this guideline, and requires more education andcooperation with them to guarantee that they recognise the measures are put in place to protect them. Furtherstudies should expand the current study to cover different nations and gain a regional and internationalperspective.

Keywords: COVID-19, religious denominations, social media platforms, state of emergency, worship services