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Worshipping outdoors in the COVID era, issues and options

I've chatted with Monica about this. She agreed with my assessment of the place I first heard about it, which I don't consider good enough to link to. 

It's about a jurisdiction where COVID emergency measures forbade indoor religious services. 

If the secular law requires holding services outdoors, how can that be reconciled with holding prayer books? As soon as someone is outdoors, it's carrying something on the Sabbath. 

Even I know there's a principle that protecting life can override most laws. Would that principle actually apply, given that the law against indoor services is about reducing risk as opposed to directly saving a life or lives? 

The next thing I wondered about was whether there was some good reason the person who posted about this didn't come up with the idea of an eruv. Monica, who spells it "eyruv" in English, said based on her studies it was an option. 

Do I understand right that there is a principle, with important exceptions, of following secular law? That principle is at a low ebb if the secular law interferes with worship. The Bible is unmistakable about what Jews must do if the government says to pray to Darius or bow to a golden icon. Is having to go outside, prayer books in hand, enough of an interference that religious law would override secular law? 

Are there other legal affordances that might be used?