A Pandemic Timeline 2 Years Into MA's State Of Emergency

BOSTON — Thursday marks the two-year anniversary of the declaration of a public health emergency for Massachusetts over COVID-19. On Wednesday, Board of Health officials voted unanimously to drop the emergency status next month.

On March 10, 2020, Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency after the number of new coronavirus cases in Massachusetts more than doubled to 92. Out of the 92 cases, 70 were traced to a Biogen conference held in Boston in February of that year.

It was the first state of emergency in Massachusetts since the Merrimack Valley gas explosions in 2018 that killed one and forced thousands out of their homes.

But the Bay State had no idea what was to come during those two years. There have been 22,944 confirmed deaths in Massachusetts since its initial outbreak.

2020

On March 23, 2020, Gov. Baker issued a stay-at-home order to keep rapidly growing cases down.

By the end of March 2020, the Bay State saw 6,620 confirmed new cases, with 89 deaths tied to the rapidly growing infectious disease, raw data shows.

By the end of April 2020, the state's death toll skyrocketed to 3,003 after receiving 104 new fatalities in less than a week related to COVID-19. That week, the state also confirmed an additional 1,524 cases of the virus, bringing the total to 56,462 at that point in time.

In the early months of the crisis, millions of Massachusetts residents lost their jobs. While employment began to rebound within a few months, unemployment remained high throughout 2020, trickling into 2021.

On May 6, 2020, Baker first instated a mask mandate for everyone over the age of 2 when social distancing was not possible. This meant every Massachusetts resident had to wear a face-covering in any public place, including grocery stores and public transportation.

At this point, Baker had extended the stay-at-home order to May 18, in an attempt to keep only essential workers going into work to bring numbers down.

In July 2020, Massachusetts schools discussed protocols on remote learning, quarantining students, hybrid plans, and how to keep students and staff safe for the fall school year.

By Halloween 2020, most celebrations and events were canceled, and there were 154,521 total confirmed cases, with 9,766 confirmed deaths throughout the Commonwealth.

The beginning of December, the FDA approved the first Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for individuals 16 years of age and older. This was based on safety and effectiveness data from a randomized, controlled, blinded ongoing clinical trial of thousands of individuals.

The Department of Public Health issued holiday guidance for December 2020, attempting to limit celebration activities to just those who shared a home. All MA residents were discouraged from large gatherings and testing sites were starting to pile high.

Reported case numbers at this time were 97,655 newly confirmed, with 2,066 confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations and 11,887 deaths.

2021

As Bay Staters entered 2021, there was still so much uncertainty - between capacity restrictions and gathering limits, it was hard to see an end in sight. Even as Massachusetts began easing business restrictions and lifted the stay-at-home advisory, indoor businesses still had to cut down to 25 percent capacity.

Most restaurants removed every other table, putting up plastic barriers, and policing patrons to stay more than six feet apart. Gathering limits were still at 10 people for indoors, and 25 people for outdoors.

Despite losing a large chunk of the restaurant industry, case numbers were starting to decline. People began taking advantage of the emergency use authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine through Pfizer, and thousands were getting vaccinated.

By spring, there was optimism as the state ramped up efforts to vaccinate residents —with help from an Arlington mom who built a Website to help people find vaccination appointments.

By the end of April, there was a total of 645,867 confirmed cases, with 1,179 new positive cases, and 17,259 deaths, according to raw data.

Finally, by the end of May, enough people had been vaccinated for the state to remove all coronavirus restrictions - including face masks and capacity limits, except for hospitals and public transportation.

The summer of 2021 appeared to almost look back to normal, as case numbers continued to plummet and vaccine rates went soaring. Officials were doing everything they could to convince residents to get vaccinated, going as far as to create a Vaxmillions lottery, handing out $1 million to five winners just for getting vaccinated.

In early August, Baker required all executive department employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 17, or face consequences.

But the fall brought new issues and new variants to Massachusetts. By the end of August, most towns and cities had voted to reinstate a mask mandate. Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey reimposed the indoor mask mandate due to an increase in COVID-19 cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant.

Boston Public Schools required all students and faculty to wear masks fall of 2021 - a mandate that has not since been lifted, even as the state votes to drop the emergency status. Janey also required all Boston city workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or participate in regular testing.

But despite a fight for vaccinations, the delta variant was rapidly growing, infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, even before omicron was detected in Massachusetts.

In early December, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu implemented a proof of vaccination requirement to enter public places throughout the city, sparking public outcry and dividing the city.

By Dec. 16, the weekly average death rate had risen to its highest level since April, ringing in 927,563 total cases and 19,361 deaths statewide since the pandemic began.

At the end of the year, boosters were being administered, Baker was saying remote-learning was not an option for students, hospitals were overwhelmed, and finding a COVID-19 test was nearly impossible as the omicron variant surged.

On Dec. 23, the Department of Public Health reported 7,817 new COVID-19 cases, the largest one-day total of confirmed cases in Massachusetts.

By the end of December, Baker called in the National Guard to help out hospitals across the state with the omicron variant-fueled surge.

On Dec. 28, Massachusetts hit a grim milestone, reporting its 1 millionth COVID-19 case, 696 days after the state's first case was reported on Feb. 1, 2020.

2022

After the holiday break, positive COVID-19 case numbers were still rising, and state officials were still trying to combat the virus, but finding tests was nearly impossible. Some Massachusetts schools delayed opening after the holiday break to ensure students and staff had an adequate amount of time to get tested for the virus.

More than 1,000 Boston Public Schools teachers, staff and bus drivers were out of school the Tuesday following the holiday break.

In early January, the FDA authorized the Pfizer COVID-19 booster for children as young as 12, broadening access to the third dose of the vaccine as COVID-19 daily infection rates remained in record territory.

On Jan. 4, coronavirus hospitalizations hit their highest rate in Massachusetts since January 2020, with just 756, or 8.7 percent, of the state's 8,691 hospital beds being vacant that day.

Throughout January, staffing issues remained at an all-time high, forcing businesses to close temporarily, and even the Brookline Police Department had trouble keeping enough members working.

Over 90 percent of communities reported rising positive test rates and cases relative to previous reports and all four statewide metrics continued to rise. The positive rate hit 22 percent, the highest level since April 2020.

As January continued, questionable pop-up testing sites were found in Worcester, and schools were administered free take-home tests.

Even though it seemed as if it was never going to get better, numbers started improving - just as Wu's vaccine mandate came into effect on Jan. 15.

As case numbers started improving, Boston hit all metrics to remove the vaccine mandate just four weeks after it went into play. Shortly after, the CDC updated its mask guidelines, and most towns across the state dropped their mandates.

On Monday, the COVID-19 positivity rate hit its lowest level since July.

To date, there have been 1,536,565 confirmed cases and 22,944 deaths statewide since the pandemic began.