The prayer meeting in Mulhouse kicked off the biggest cluster of COVID-19 in France - one of northern Europe’s hardest-hit countries. Read the specialreports on how five days of worship set a virus time bomb in France: by TangiSalaunRtrs
PARIS - From the stage of an evangelical superchurch, the leader of the gospel choir kicked off an evening of prayer and preaching: “We’re going to celebrate the Lord! Are you feeling the joy tonight?”
Weeks later, Germany partially closed its border with France, suspending a free-movement pact that has been in place for the past 25 years. The church cluster was a key factor, two people familiar with the German decision told Reuters. Church officials told Reuters that 17 members of the congregation have since died of complications linked to the disease.
“At the time, we viewed COVID as something that was far off,” said Jonathan Peterschmitt, son of the lead pastor and grandson of the church’s founder. His father, Samuel, was unavailable for an interview because he had been sickened by the virus, his son and a church spokeswoman said. Widmer said he had drifted away from the church as a teenager, but returned. The Mulhouse gathering was something he looked forward to the whole year, he said: “You feel a special energy during that week. For a week, you stop everything to spiritually recharge.” As a drummer in the church orchestra, he attended the whole week.
He is pastor of his own church in Africa and co-founder of an organization called the International Evangelism Center – Africa Interior Mission. A charismatic speaker with a shock of white hair, Karambiri was to be the meeting’s star preacher. Also gathering in the church building were two children whose mother had taken sick before the event started, health officials said. The mother stayed at home, but their grandfather brought the children along - the elder child was five, the younger just one year old.
By the end of the gathering on Feb. 21, no one had reported any flu-like symptoms, according to Nathalie Schnoebelen, a church spokeswoman. At the time, France’s tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases was steady at 12.In late February, Widmer, the drummer, started feeling unwell. His wife, his three children, and his mother-in-law also took ill.
They had received a report from the Robert Koch Institute, a German state public health institution, that added eastern France to its list of four coronavirus risk areas around the world - along with China’s Hubei province, Iran, Italy and North Gyeongsang province, adjoining the city of Daegu, the site of the South Korean church outbreak. By March 11, France’s COVID-19 tally at the WHO had leapt to 1,774, of whom 33 had died.
The French government asked Berlin for an explanation. On March 16, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to French President Emmanuel Macron. They talked about the cluster in eastern France and the risk from commuters, said a German government official briefed on the call. Then they agreed to close the border to traffic other than cargo vehicles and people making essential trips. A French official confirmed the contents of the discussion.
She was hospitalized overnight, tested, and on March 4, became one of the first cases of COVID-19 on the French island of Corsica. She has since been in self-isolation, and her church has suspended services. As of March 27, 263 people were infected with coronavirus on Corsica, 21 of whom died.
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