Places of worship not exempt from extended Indianapolis stay-at-home order
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis has to stay at home for at least another week, and that means no in-person religious services on this very special upcoming weekend.
Democratic Mayor Joe Hogsett said in a virtual news conference Wednesday morning, “We do not intend to create an exception for places of worship to meet this weekend. I know how heartbreaking this will be for congregations across our city. It is, after all, Mother’s Day weekend.”
In the same news conference, Dr. Virginia Caine with the Marion County Health Department said, “Religious services will need to remain remote, and virtual for the time being.”
That’s not the case for most of the state.
On, Monday, Republican Gov.Eric Holcomb said gatherings of any size willl be allowed at religious services across most of Indiana beginning Friday.
“We just thought a good place to start or a good place to have a test or a control group would be houses of worship. That these would be the absolute, in my mind, most responsible,” Holcomb said Monday.
Indiana’s Episcopal Bishops have called for all of their churches to stick with online services for the rest of May.
“This will allow us to assess resurgent risk and prepare a safe, phased reopening with full adherence to social distancing and other best practices,” said the Rev. Julia Whitworth of Trinity Episcopal Church in a virtual news conference Wednesday.
Wednesday’s announcement came as more positive COVID-19 cases popped up in the county.
State data on Wednesday showed 390 deaths and more than 6,700 positive cases in Marion County.
Caine said, “We are pleading with everyone, in every corner of our city, to treat this virus with the seriousness it deserves” because the battle against COVID-19 isn’t over just yet.
Taylor Schaffer, the deputy chief of staff-communications for Hogsett’s office, issued details in a news release:
- Marion County’s stay-at-home orders will remain in place through at least May 15.
- These restrictions will apply to places of worship, delaying their reopening.
- Marion County intends to adopt the state’s Back on Track phasing when reopening begins.
- Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department will be educating residents and aggressively enforcing restrictions on large gatherings.
- Local data will be analyzed through the weekend and additional guidance on the timing of future phases of reopening will be given early next week.
During the Wednesday virtual media briefing, IMPD Chief Randal Taylor said police will still take what he calls an “educational approach” when they’re called out to large gatherings. He says police spent hours breaking up parties on Saturday. The police chief says IMPD’s goal is not to make arrests but assure people know that large gatherings are not allowed because of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Taylor said, “Our officers will give you warnings, initially, in hopes that you will abide by those warnings and move on to much smaller gatherings. In the event that is not accomplished, we are prepared to move forward with issuing summonses. That gives us probable cause in a lot of circumstances to do further investigations. So, if we find other violations, those things could put you in jeopardy of some other form of arrest.”
He insists that warning is not a threat and IMPD doesn’t want summonses or further investigations to happen.
Concerns about large gatherings can be emailed to the Indianapolis Emergency Operations Center manager at eocmanager@indy.gov or the dispatch center’s nonemergency line at (317) 327-3811.