from Worcester Telegram:

WORCESTER - Despite being slapped with a $300 fine for defying Gov. Charlie Baker’s ban on gatherings of more than 10 people, Kristopher D. Casey, pastor of Adams Square Baptist Church, said Monday he intends to hold church services again Wednesday and Sunday and has no intention of limiting the size of the gathering.

Casey said he is so committed to holding church services during the ban that he’s willing to get arrested standing up for his constitutional rights and his right to preach the Gospel.

The governor’s order says violations shall result in a warning for a first offense, and that violators may receive a civil citation and fine of up to $300 for a second offense. For subsequent offenses, violators may be subject to criminal penalties including a fine of up to $500, imprisonment, or both.

“I’m going to have church on Wednesday. I will happily accept the $500 find on Thursday. And then I will have church again on Sunday,” Casey said. “I’m not going to be the only pastor to be here. So if they feel that they need to arrest me, there will be somebody else to stand up and preach the Gospel.”

Adams Square Baptist Church can hold 300 to 325 people. Forty-six attendees were counted leaving through the front door of the church at 266 Lincoln St. after a service Sunday. On April 26, 56 people reportedly attended a Sunday service that Casey led at the church, drawing condemnation from city officials.

Casey, who planned to attend a Liberty Rally in Boston on Monday to urge the state government to allow businesses to reopen, confirmed that Police Chief Steven M. Sargent hand-delivered him notice of a $300 fine Monday morning for defying Gov. Charlie Baker’s ban on gatherings of more than 10 people for a second time Sunday.

“I don’t want to get fined, but I have to stand up for our constitutional rights and I have to stand up, more importantly, for what God has led me to do and say and preach and that’s the Gospel,” Casey said. “The Bill of Rights and the Constitution don’t go away because there’s a quarantine. They don’t go on vacation. They’re there all the time. So, we’ve got to stand up for it. And if nobody is willing to stand up for it, generations of people behind us will suffer the consequence.”

Casey said the church has received numerous small donations from people all over America to pay the $300 fine.

“People are excited about someone standing up and protecting our rights,” Casey said. “It’s not just Baptists. It’s rabbis and priests. It’s bishops. It’s people from all over America calling me and saying, ‘Thank you for taking a stand. I stand behind you.’ ”

Casey said extensive cleaning measures and safety practices, including temperature checks and mandatory wearing of face masks and rubber gloves, have been put in place at the church.

from Worcester Telegram; more conflicting statements from government:

WORCESTER — The city hopes to allow reopening of Walmart store that had a COVID-19 outbreak in the next couple of days, but it won’t open Monday, City Manager Edward M. Augustus said Sunday.

City officials said 81 employees of the Walmart Supercenter at 25 Tobias Boland Way have tested positive for COVID-19. That includes 58 of 391 employees who were tested Thursday and Friday, plus 23 other employees who tested positive before that.

“The store has been professionally cleaned,” Augustus said during Sunday’s press briefing at City Hall. “And the goal is to allow the store to open sometime in the next couple of days. It won’t be tomorrow. But we will let you know when the store will be cleared for opening.”

Dr. Michael P. Hirsh, the city’s medical director, said his team is very close to getting the Walmart up and running again.

“There’re some stray employees that were on leave and weren’t around to be tested on Thursday and Friday,” Hirsh said. “And we want to make sure that they’re tested so that we know that they are not going to be the ones that start an outbreak in the group that we have as negative. Once we know that, and we’re again going to do another inspection from our division in inspectional services, then we should be able to get this store back online.”

Hirsh said it was very unlikely that a customer in “a normal shopping experience” would have close enough contact to catch COVID-19 from someone who has the coronavirus that causes the disease.

“You have to be there 15 minutes in that person’s presence,” Hirsh said. “If you’re doing a routine kind of shopping you’re probably not going to have that kind of close contact. So we would not fear that many people would turn positive from a shopping experience at Walmart.”