New England Catholics look forward to celebrating Mass again

Boston (AP) — Major hospitals in Maine’s largest city experienced an uptick in coronavirus hospitalizations; Roman Catholics in New Hampshire can begin receiving Holy Communion again in parishes that follow certain safety guidelines; Vermont’s largest annual event has been canceled for the first time.

Details on those and other coronavirus-related developments across New England:

Connecticut

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford says it’s making plans to start holding public Masses again.

Leaders of the archdiocese, which includes parishes in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties, said Saturday on Facebook that they plan to resume public Masses on weekdays first before resuming Sunday masses — “while following public health guidelines.”

Guidance for parishes will become public next week, the archdiocese says.

As of Friday, there were 39,640 coronavirus cases and 3,637 deaths in Connecticut.

Maine

Portland’s largest hospitals saw an uptick in coronavirus hospitalizations over the past week while hospitalizations in other parts of Maine were flat or declined.

Coronavirus cases at Maine Medical Center rose from 15 to 24 over the week ending on Thursday, The Portland Press Herald reported. That’s its highest level of hospitalizations since April 27, the newspaper reported. Northern Light Mercy in Portland’s cases rose from five to eight.

In Bangor, Eastern Maine Medical Center had just one patient each day. Cases peaked there at seven earlier this month.

Maine reported 65 new COVID-19 cases and two additional deaths Saturday. That brings the total number of deaths to 77 and the total number of people who have tested positive to over 2,000, the Maine Center for Disease Control said.

Massachusetts

Massachusetts’ long-term care facilities are facing a Monday deadline to test at least 90% of their residents and staff for the coronavirus in order to qualify for certain state funding.

Long-term care facilities that meet that benchmark by Monday can qualify for a piece of $130 million in emergency state funds.

A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health told The Cape Cod Times that it would not be able to provide that the number of facilities that have met the testing requirement until after May 25.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration has already provided roughly $260 million in nursing home funding since the beginning of the virus crisis, the newspaper reported.

The number of people in Massachusetts confirmed to have COVID-19 neared 91,000 on Friday as the state reported over 800 new cases. Related deaths climbed to 6,228 as another 80 were reported.

New Hampshire

Church services are still prohibited, but Roman Catholics in New Hampshire can begin receiving Holy Communion again in parishes that follow certain safety guidelines.

Manchester Bishop Peter Libasci has given priests permission to begin offering Communion this weekend. His instructions specify that pews must be closed off, hand sanitizer must be available at church entrances and masks must be worn except for when receiving Communion.