Religiously avoid potential COVID clusters
The latest Massachusetts Department of Public Health data provides a breakdown of the major COVID-19 clusters, and it may be surprising to learn that one of the main sources of infections stem from households.
Family members interacting with one another daily is an unavoidable reality.
That’s why adhering to coronavirus mitigation guidelines while out in public can’t be overemphasized.
Introducing this virus into the home significantly heightens the likelihood of its spread, which can be devastating in a multigenerational family.
However, there’s no excuse for one cluster that keeps occurring despite ample examples of its deleterious effects.
Fitchburg’s public-school system was forced to postpone its return to a hybrid instruction model due to a coronavirus outbreak linked to a city church.
Students were scheduled to be back in school Monday. Now the district plans on reopening a week later, on Nov. 9.
Health Director Stephen Curry confirmed that those cases are attributed to a recent outbreak of COVID-19 at the Crossroads Community Church, located at 839 Ashby State Road.
As of Monday, he said there were at least 28 cases of COVID-19 linked to church services.
According to the newspaper, the Rev. Bryan Tomes, who’s been associated with Crossroads since 2005, was unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to reach him via email and phone.
Curry said the city is leading contact tracing efforts and working closely with those impacted by the outbreak. He also encouraged individuals associated with the church to get tested for COVID-19.
Perhaps Rev. Tomes took inspiration from Pastor Kristopher Casey of Worcester’s Adams Square Baptist Church, who back in May took it upon himself to defy Gov. Charlie Baker’s order to limit public gatherings, in order to contain a coronavirus pandemic that had already taken the lives of more than 4,000 state residents.
Casey claimed he had a constitutional right to hold services, which apparently extended to putting himself and countless worshippers in harm’s way.
He obviously didn’t care that at the time, Worcester had reported 2,297 COVID19 cases — the third-highest number in the state — and 114 deaths.
Despite all the publicity surrounding other egregious incidents of churches ignoring public-health guidelines, these outbreaks continue to happen, in defiance of congregants’ well-being and common sense.
We must assume Rev. Tomes also hadn’t heard about the COVID-19 cluster at a church in Brooks,
Maine, earlier this month. Indoor services hosted by the Brooks Pentecostal Church spawned more than 40 COVID cases. The church’s Facebook live stream of the event showed that churchgoers disregarded social distancing and didn’t wear face coverings.
The church also had a multiday “fellowship gathering” with other churches in the area, which brought in at least 150 people.
The coronavirus amnesia that apparently struck both the Fitchburg and Brooks, Maine, pastors must be the reason why they didn’t heed the super-spreader event near Millinocket, Maine, in August, where the pastor of Sanford Calvary Baptist Church performed a wedding ceremony that ultimately produced 180 infections and eight deaths – some of whom hadn’t even been present at the nuptial.
We understand that most clergy and church denominations have taken this pandemic seriously, and have either suspended services altogether or strictly observed social-distancing guidelines.
However, that hasn’t stopped outliers like those we’ve mentioned from continuing to put countless people in coronavirus jeopardy by flouting public-health directives.
We ask parishioners in these situations to exercise the sound judgment your pastors have rejected and stay away from a COVID cluster waiting to happen.