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.”

What next, Governor Baker gonna think he can tell me to get hair cut?

BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker took a step toward preparing the public for what he said life might look like in Massachusetts when this period of staying at home to avoid COVID-19 infection ends, ordering all citizens to wear masks or facial coverings in public if they can’t socially distance.

Then he pulls a typical government response:

Asked specifically about joggers and bicyclists, Baker said if someone is running early in the morning and confident they won’t encounter other people they might be able to exercise without a mask, but if they go running during the afternoon when more people are out they should probably cover their face.

Huh? Last time I lived under institutional rules, military, if word came down the order of the day is now, say, sleeves rolled down, that was it, it was not an option, it was not, you should probably. . . .

When it comes to this latest suggestion from Baker, I fall back to one of his earliest comments; "I do not believe I can, nor should, I order people to stay indoors, inside their homes." Since his order contains possible $300.00 fine, what they gonna do if it is one of the 300,000 unemployed people whose benefit application is on hold; what are they going to do when the hear the words "I am not going to pay, I cannot pay"

Here in Templeton, majority of the board of selectmen and the town administrator want to quote a state law, but then not follow it; MGL chapter 41, section 108. Word is Gardner Court house closed for cleaning, corona virus. Again, many mixed messages from the governor; I wonder how many of those millions of masks that came from china are bad, KN95 reported on news that they don't work, but then governor and MADPH tells us a bandanna will work.

from USA Today:

As many states move toward reopening after a horrific April that saw nearly 60,000 deaths because of the coronavirus, a new report offers a stark warning: A group of experts has concluded the pandemic could last as long as two years, until 60% to 70% of the population is immune.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, suggested social distancing could continue in some form through the summer as the White House quietly allowed official guidelines to expire. Meanwhile, a new report warns the pandemic could last up to two years, until the world hits the threshold for herd immunity.

Amid all the reopening talk this week, Dr. Tom Inglesby, a leading expert on pandemics, reminded us: We will not have complete "normal" – no masks, fully social – until we have a vaccine.

"The daily merry go round"

More interest on masks for corona

(covid-19 for some)

Mornong news on tv, reported that masks given to police and fire not working; k95 masks, made in china not working, so those were replaced by N95 masks. So if all those kind of masks similar to n95 do not work, how come we are told to wear any kind of mask, even a bandanna thing if those made in china masks do not work?

Shown ambulance workers wearing respirator type units, maybe people should be ordering them and walk into grocery store to shop looking like you are ready to go into the paint booth. Again, first no masks, they do not work, you need to be fitted, etc., then wear any kind of mask and now, those masks issued to police and fire do not work, but you people going grocery shopping, wear a bandanna.

Some communities now making it mandatory to wear a mask if you leave your home and if you do not, you get fined up to $1,000.00. Question; what are authorities going to do if you do not pay? Put a lien on your home, place you in jail, attach your paycheck? Your honor, I am a renter, un-employed and I cannot pay the fine. Reported about 700,000 people in MA have signed up for un-employment benefit, with about 300,000 still on "hold" which means those people better have some source of funds until. Mean while, lines at food banks continue to grow. Templeton food pantry moving to Saturday hours, 12:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. Food pantry has gone from one day per week to 3 days per week (two time periods on Thursday)

By GREG VINE

For Athol Daily News

Published: 4/26/2020 12:21:11 PM

Modified: 4/26/2020 12:21:06 PM

ATHOL — “We’re concerned about everything,” said Athol Town Manager Shaun Suhoski when interviewed regarding the town’s financial picture. “This (COVID-19) crisis is nibbling away at both ends of the bone.

“On the expense side, we do have increased expenses — from overtime, medical supplies, personal protective equipment. The unit to disinfect our ambulance so that it’s not out of service for a half-hour was $3,000; a commercial-grade mister is just one example. So, we have the expenses that are unanticipated but necessary.”

In March, as the extent of the crisis was becoming known, Suhoski sent a memo to department heads urging them to keep a tight rein on their budgets and to expend money only on those goods or services that are absolutely necessary.

“Although we’re re-running the numbers — and the Finance Committee and I will look at them again next week — I have confidence we’re going to be able to manage the current fiscal year. We are segregating all COVID-19 costs so that we can account for them down the road as we look at FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for reimbursement, or the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act funding. The commonwealth did get an allocation of $2.7 billion from the CARES Act only for costs. It does not help the revenue side, but with unanticipated, un-budgeted costs.”

Suhoski said the state and federal governments are hammering out the rules concerning disbursement of CARES Act monies.

“That may cover any deficit spending related to COVID that we have to do,” he said.

The town manager said his real concern is with the approaching fiscal year, which would traditionally begin on July 1 but which is likely to be delayed.

“This is an issue that the town will work through together,” said Suhoski. “This is not one where the town manager says, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do.’ My role is to come up with options, suggestions, recommendations — which I’m working on. But absent some stroke of bipartisanship at the federal level, where cities and towns are covered on the revenue shortfall side, we’re going to going through some tough times.”

He said the town could be faced with the temporary furlough of some workers.

“I really hope it doesn’t get to layoffs,” he stressed. “It’s really going to depend on where the federal stimulus goes, how we are able to slowly ramp up the economy to allow people in their own households to have that discretionary income, which then turns into income for the public entities down the line.”

Suhoski said the town has been losing revenues in several areas, including income from the local meals tax, as well as a drop in the number of building permits, electrical permits, dog licenses, marriage licenses and similar fee-based revenues.

“So, local receipts are down,” he said. “We don’t have any definitive answer from the state, but there are very dire projections on loss of state revenue as compared to when the governor prepared his budget (in January). One model projects a $4 billion loss. So, it would be foolhardy for any local official to think a $4 billion, or even a $2 billion cut, in state revenue won’t somehow impact the local aid account or Chapter 70 aid to the schools.

“It’s just not a pretty picture right now,” Suhoski concluded.

GARDNER — As the area continues to focus on the coronavirus pandemic, the Massachusetts Nurses Association has concerns over local cuts to medical services.

Heywood Healthcare President and CEO Win Brown said Thursday, April 23, there are still questions concerning the temporary shutdown of the mental health unit at Heywood Hospital, which was closed due to the lack of patient volume in the wake of social distancing considerations.

“We are having no trouble placing the limited number of patients that have come through our ER in other local inpatient units, so if that volume returns again we will reassess and look to open,” said Brown.

He added that Heywood Healthcare has dropped a number of services because of the reduction in volume, but he noted that there are mental health offerings still provided. The geriatric psych unit, which is fully operational and has a full census, the partial hospital program, the intensive outpatient program and the telebehavioral health services are all open and still providing behavioral health services to the region.

Nurses, however, believe that there is still a need for the onsite unit.

In a press release from the Massachusetts Nurses Association, registered nurses of Heywood Hospital stated they are “strongly against” the closure of the mental health unit and call on Heywood Healthcare to reopen it, which they call “a critical service” for those in need of specialized psychiatric care, especially essential during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our mental health unit is an essential service for vulnerable members of our community,” said Kara Belmonte, a registered nurse in the mental health unit at Heywood Hospital who has been furloughed due to the closure. “There will be a wave of patients seeking urgent mental health care as the medical devastation of this pandemic peaks and then flattens and people are left with traumatic memories. Post-traumatic stress, isolation and anxiety will worsen existing conditions and create new psychiatric challenges. This pandemic is a stark reminder of the need for ongoing access to quality psychiatric treatment.”

Nurses say that the mental health care system was already overburdened before the pandemic hit and those in need of services were already waiting for treatment.

The MNA has additionally called for a halt to all hospital service closure and staff cutbacks during the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that no health care facility that receives additional state or federal funding to help them during the COVID-19 pandemic should lay off or cancel staff, or close facilities or services.

Last week Brown reported that because of the patient drop in volume for everything from elective surgeries to emergency treatment, Heywood Healthcare was losing $5 million per month in revenue. The results have been hundreds of layoffs, furloughs and cuts in salary for administration.

Dawn Casavant, vice president of external affairs, said the MHU is not closed, adding there are regulatory processes involved around closing an essential service.