3 Months And 7,408 Deaths Later, MA Still In State Of Emergency

Wednesday marks three months since Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts. The state was still 10 days away from seeings its first death related to COVID-19, school was in session and the Boston Marathon was less than a month away.

There have been 7,408 deaths since. Officials hope a return to class in the fall will be feasible. The Marathon's cancelation is the last thing on most people's minds.

While the public health metrics have drastically improved from their peaks, there is still no end to sight to the coronavirus crisis.

On March 10, Baker declared a state of emergency after cases more than doubled to 92 across the commonwealth. (There are more than 103,000 now.) Seventy of those first 92 cases were connected to a Biogen conference — a super-spreading event in Boston that gave COVID-19 a head start in the state.

State health officials also announced that day they had identified the first person-to-person transmission of the virus in Berkshire County.

"There's no question that the efforts to mitigate the spread of this virus will be disruptive," Baker said at the time.

Baker was urging schools to cancel out-of-state travel and limited the number of days school would need to be in session this year. That was just days before the state canceled school for what ended up being the entire school year.

Baker also said state employees should work from home if possible, and that private employers should allow the same. It took until the beginning of this month for Boston offices to open to even 25 percent capacity, and Baker is still asking workplaces to allow workers to stay home if possible.

Officials at that point were still unsure about the Boston Marathon being run in April. It was postponed to September two days later, and late last month the event was canceled for the first time in its 124-year history.

Massachusetts has been among the hardest-hit states during the pandemic, trailing only New York and New Jersey in some metrics. Baker in the three months since declaring the emergency has, along with other governors, almost completely closed the economy and started its gradual reopening.

The state has become a national leaders in per-capita testing — there have been more than 658,000 tests performed — and handed out more than millions of pieces of personal protective equipment.

Health metrics continue to improve, though there is some concern about what mass protests will do to numbers in the near future. The three-day average of COVID-19 deaths was at 31 as of June 6, which is about 20 percent of what it was at its peak. Hospitalizations and the number of patients in intensive care units also continue to decline, with 1,397 ad 315, respectively.