Pastor Jamal Bryant's New Birth Missionary Baptist Church has announced that it is postponing its $150 per person Coronavirus testing event at the church.
The church had previously planned to hold a two-day drive-thru event, offering 1,000 people tests to see if they had COVID-19, charging each person a fee of $150.
The church released an official statement on its Facebook page, explaining that the event had been postponed to ensure the church complied with an executive order signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp earlier this week.
The New Birth Missionary Baptist Church statement read: "To remain compliant with Governor Brian Kemp's executive order, which is being signed today and goes into effect on Friday, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and various medical partners will postpone the COVID-19 testing scheduled for this weekend."
It added, "We look forward to coordinating with our local and state officials to support flattening the curve in Georgia and helping to heal our nation and our world from this global pandemic."
Pastor Jamal Bryant's church continued: "Based off of these more stringent regulations placed in Georgia, we are also forced to suspend our drive-in worship experience planned for this year's Resurrection Service.
"New Birth will continue to stream our weekly sermons online and across our digital platforms. New Birth will continue to serve 1,000 individuals each Saturday at the King's Table (food pantry) as we adhere to federal and state emergency food distribution center guidelines."
The church had planned the event in collaboration with RoweDocs and Oakhurst health clinics, with RoweDocs involved to provide pre-screening services for $25, followed by a coronavirus test for a further $125 per person.
Bryant had previously excitedly announced the planned testing: "I'm excited to announce something huge today. I'm grateful unto God that we have come into agreement with RoweDocs and Oakhurst health clinics."
He added, "New Birth, as of today is in possession of 1,000 COVID-19 tests…that are gonna be made available to our community. Absolutely amazing that we are going to be ….able to serve more minorities in COVID-19 testing than anywhere else in the nation. I'm excited about it and I am ashamed about it."
On Sunday, New York state announced a further 594 deaths due to coronavirus, bringing the total deaths in the state to 4,159. Across the United States as a whole, there were a further 1,497 virus deaths recorded in the past 24 hours, with some media reporting that the death rate in the country was likely to peak in 11 days time. Some scenarios indicate that as many as 2,600 people could die from coronavirus in a single day during that peak period.
