Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is temporarily allowing stores in the city to offer thin-film plastic bags to their customers during the coronavirus emergency.
The mayor's executive order does not say why allowing the plastic bags is a good idea, but government officials elsewhere have suggested that the reusable bags that many shoppers in certain jurisdictions nowadays bring into stores from their homes or cars may spread the virus, and that thin-film bags provided by a store to its customers on a one-time basis may be safer.
Catholic churches will not offer public Masses in their buildings next Sunday in Rhode Island, but their bells will be heard nonetheless.
Bishop Thomas J. Tobin asked Catholic churches in the Ocean State to ring their bells for five minutes at 9 a.m. each Sunday morning during the coronavirus pandemic, "as a sign of faith and unity," as WJAR reports.
