BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Wednesday, March 10, marked the one-year anniversary of Gov. Charlie Baker declaring a state of emergency in Massachusetts because of COVID-19.
This set into motion everything that this pandemic has been known for — masks, lockdowns, schools and businesses closing, and social distancing.
Less than a week after the state of emergency was declared, schools were ordered the close and restaurants were ordered to serve take-out or delivery only.
“It’s kind of surreal, looking back on it now,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said. “When I told them what was going to happen, or what I thought was going to happen, I was repeating what I heard, and I think they thought there was something wrong with me. And then two weeks later, literally everything shut down.”
Read More: State Elementary, Middle Schools Required To Come Back In-Person In April
A year later, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported Tuesday evening 560,981 total confirmed cases and 16,123 total confirmed deaths.
Coronavirus first arrived in Massachusetts in February of last year. The state’s first case of COVID-19 was reported on Feb. 1, 2020 when a man returned to Boston after traveling to Wuhan, China.
At the end of February, 2020, Biogen held a conference at the Long Wharf Marriott in Boston. It is now considered Massachusetts’ first major super-spreader event. Ninety-nine of the 175 people who attended the conference ended up testing positive for COVID-19. It is believed those individuals carried the virus to different parts of the country and the world.
WBZ NewsRadio's Karyn Regal (@Karynregal) reports
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