Our viral year

It seems like a decade, but it was barely a year ago that almost nobody had heard of Covid-19. Then it just exploded in Boston and across Massachusetts. We fought back, it retreated. Now it's exploding again and we wonder if enough vaccine will get here soon enough to let us get back to what used to be normal things - like eating out, going to holiday parties and not worrying who's going to die next. Here are some highlights - and lowlights - of our pandemic year.

January

1/27: Boston officials urge people to wash their hands more often as this new virus gets closer.

1/29:

There's a run on surgical masks.

February

2/1:

Officials confirm the state's first coronavirus case - a UMass Boston student just returned from Wuhan, China, who, on feeling ill, quarantined himself and called campus health services. Officials think his quick action meant he didn't infect anybody else. People who had earlier stocked up on masks rushed to Boylston Street in the Back Bay to sell masks for $5 or $10 each.

2/7: The BSO cancels a concert tour of Asia and instead does concerts across Boston.

2/15: As business collapses in Chinatown, city councilors in Boston and Quincy organized a lunch at China Pearl that attracts hundreds.

2/25: Moderna, headquartered in Cambridge, ships samples of a possible Covid-19 vaccine to the CDC for study from its plant in Norwood.

2/26: Biogen, a Cambridge pharmaceutical company that makes drugs to fight muscular dystrophy, opens a two-day conference for 175 managers at the Marriott Long Wharf. At least one manager, flying in from Europe, didn't know he or she was infected with Covid-19. The conference ultimately led to as many as 300,000 infections worldwide, including in Everett, Chelsea, Revere and Norwood, and at the Pine Street Inn.

2/27: The giant Pax East video game show at the BCEC goes on as scheduled, although Sony pulled out.

March

3/1: Newton North students and staffers were told to quarantine for two weeks after returning from a month-long exchange program in Florence, Italy, one of the countries emerging as a coronavirus hotspot.

3/3: Conferences scheduled for Boston begin to get canceled.

3/4:

With hand sanitizer sold out everywhere, TV stations show us how to make our own. Local bodegas, though, had sanitizer to sell.

3/5: Biogen workers begin showing up at local hospitals with Covid-19 symptoms. Local colleges begin limiting meeting sizes and travel.

3/6:

More local Biogen workers test positive. Brigham and Women's shuts a road behind its main building to handle all the Biogen employees coming in for testing. A Biogen worker who developed symptoms after attending a charity benefit in Norwood leads to nearly 30 people being told to quarantine, among them, the town administrator, who later tests positive, and the town school superintendent.

3/7:

Wellesley and Wellesley College begin shutting local events and facilities after a Biogen worker who lives in town is diagnosed. Local colleges begin to tell students to learn how to use their school videoconferencing systems, just in case. The Somerville Market Basket ran out of Spam.

3/8: State health officials report 28 diagnosed cases of Covid-19 - up from 13 the day before. The Chestnut Hill Wegmans ran out of sanitizing wipes, but still had bleach, Windex and Pledge. Newton sent out e-mail that a local school parent had been diagnosed. Arlington reported a local school kid whose parent, a Biogen manager, had the virus was also showing symptoms.

3/9: Boston School Superintendent Brenda Cassellius orders janitors to keep the restrooms in city schools stocked with soap and paper towels. The number of Covid-19 cases statewide jumps to 41 - 32 among people who attended the Biogen meeting. Amherst College becomes one of the first Massachusetts schools to announce a switch to online learning after spring break. Mayor Walsh cancels the March 15 St. Patrick's Day parade in South Boston.

3/10: Gov. Baker declares a state of emergency, as number of Massachusetts cases jumps to 92.

3/11:

As conventions and meetings keep getting canceled, the Boston Flower Show opens as scheduled, just without any of the usual volunteers, all of whom decided to stay home. More and more people were working at home, leading to less than crowded rush hours on the T. The Everett casino begins requiring temperature checks of would-be gamblers. Harpoon reduces the size of tours at its Marine Industrial Park plant. BPS shut the Eliot School in the North End for a week after somebody affiliated with it tested positive. Bella Luna, still open in JP, cancels live entertainment and stops giving out crayons to kids. Unlike Pax East, the large Comic Con scheduled for March 20 at the BCEC is canceled.

3/12:

A group planned to distribute free toilet paper to low-income families in Roxbury. Hospitals are having trouble keeping up with demand for Covid-19 tests. In what we now know was a burst of optimism, the Boston Marathon was postponed to the fall. The state re-opens the Health Connector to let people sign up for insurance. Federal judges postpone jury trials in Boston for six weeks. Towns all over eastern Massachusetts shut schools. People now avoiding the T like the plague. The Marriott Long Wharf, epicenter of the pandemic, shut indefinitely. Meat became the next item supermarkets ran out of.

3/13:

Cardinal O'Malley announces Masses would continue, but that the church was suspending distribution of communion by mouth. Mayor Walsh orders Boston schools shut starting the next week. Cardinal O'Malley suspends Masses.

3/14:

The state orders casinos to shut. The bars of South Boston fill up in advance of St. Patrick's Day.

3/15:

With photos of filled South Boston bars spreading nationally, most of the bars agree to close today. Mayor Walsh declares a public-health emergency in Boston. Walsh also orders bars to reduce capacity by 50% and shut by 11 p.m. Gov. Baker orders all restaurants and bars shut for indoor dining and drinking. Some intrepid Southie residents stage a parade of sorts - a motorcade of vehicles flying Irish flags.

3/16:

Mayor Walsh announces the shutdown of all construction in booming Boston; orders libraries and community centers shut. MGH, the Brigham and Harvard Medical School shut most of their research labs to try to slow the virus. In Roslindale, Woodbourne residents begin a porch singalong. In the Back Bay, a man serenades Gloucester Street with a modified version of "Sweet Caroline" ("hands not touching hands"). The United Way starts a fund to help laid-off hourly workers. Brookline suspends its infamous overnight parking ban.

3/17:

Local hospitals scrounge their labs for stuff that could be used to create Covid-19 test kits. A burglar at a Chinatown apartment building is spotted wearing a surgical mask correctly. With so many reporters on the coronavirus beat, WBZ only had three reporters on the breaking news that Tom Brady was leaving the Patriots.

3/18: Boston begins putting up quarantine tents at local homeless shelters. Malls shut down. The Dedham Stop & Shop runs out of ketchup.

3/19:

The first morning of seniors-only shopping at the Dedham Stop & Shop results in the sort of long line the early hours were meant to shield senors from. The Suffolk County District Attorney's office begins going through inmate records to see if anybody can be "decarcerated" to reduce jail crowding. Mass General reported it had five Covid-19 patients in its ICU - and 70 more patients in the hospital who didn't need intensive care. Hospitals ask for people with N95 masks to donate them - along with any other PPE they might have. State Rep. Liz Miranda (D-5th Suffolk) proposed $1,000 monthly emergency payments to Massachusetts residents. The Quincy DPW begs residents to stop flushing all those wipes down the toilet, not because they might be infected, but because they jam up the pipes. State Police said stop it with the rumors about men in white hazmat suits going door to door demanding to be let in for "Covid checks."

3/20:

Officials announce the state's first Covid-19 death - an 87-year-old Winthrop resident. Mayor Walsh asks construction companies to donate masks to hospitals. Jamaica Plain residents debate: Should Jamaica Pond walkers and runners all be required to go in the same direction around the pond? The Rox Diner in West Roxbury shut down.

3/21: The T starts requiring bus passengers and people getting on the Green Line above ground to board through rear doors in an effort to protect drivers. Boston releases a list of restaurants still open for takeout and delivery. Cambridge announces local barbershops, salons and tanning parlors will have to close down, and announces it will buy meals from local restaurants to serve to the homeless. Grocery stores limit how many people can enter at one time. Children's Hospital staffers post a video showing how to craft respirators out of stuff the typical hospital might have lying around. The state's second Covid-19 death is reported; the victim is identified only as a Middlesex County woman in her 50s.

3/22:

Three more Covid-19 deaths reported in Massachusetts, including the first in Boston, a man in his 90s. Boston-area sewers hold a virtual sew-along to make masks. Neil Diamond releases a Covid-19 version of "Sweet Caroline." Rich people fleeing to their Nantucket safe spots wake up to the news that the island had its first Covid-19 case.

3/23: Gov. Baker announces a statewide shutdown, orders all "non-essential businesses to close starting the next day. Boston's second Covid-19 death reported. CambridgeSide Galleria closes its doors. Amtrak stops running Acela trains between Boston and DC due to lack of ridership. Roche Bros. bans reusable bags to try to protect its checkout workers. Northeastern Police plead with students remaining in Boston to stop partying like there's no tomorrow. Brookline shut a fire station after a firefighter showed a temperature spike. Cambridge bans reusable bags. The state reported that one out of three diagnoses were in people ounder 40.

3/24:

Confusion continues to reign at Jamaica Pond, where City Councilor Matt O'Malley had signs posted telling everybody to walk or run clockwise, but on the left. Harvard President Larry Bacow anounced he and his wife both tested positive after showing symptoms. Brookline announces that firefighter whose temperature spiked tested positive and that two other firefighters at his station were also showing symptoms.

3/25:

Mayor Walsh says officials are beginning to look at using the South Boston convention center as a field hospital, says the Boston Resiliency Fund has already exceeded its initial $20-million goal to help organizations that help people. Walsh also signs an order letting stores start using flimsy plastic bags again. The MBTA reports three bus drivers out of the Cabot depot have tested positive. US Rep. Seth Moulton co-sponsors a resolution to blame China, then reports both he and his wife are now showing symptoms. The regional electricity grid reports that with so many businesses closed, the demand for electricity has dropped. US Rep. Ayanna Pressley reports she is showing symptoms.

3/26: Dozens of workers at Mass. General, Brigham and Women's and Boston Medical Center have tested positive. The Boston City Council considers a measure calling for a freeze on rents, evictions and foreclosures, but Councilor Frank Baker blocks action through a parliamentary maneuver. The state's four medical schools agreed to accelerate graduation to get more doctors into the field. A liquor plant in Readville announces it was now producing hand sanitizer. A large group practice at Beth Israel told doctors it was suspending contributions to their retirement funds because the reduction in non-Covid-19 procedures meant less income.

3/27:

The MBTA pulls an Orange Line train out of service after getting a report a man was licking it at Tufts. Gov. Baker says people coming into Massachusetts should self quarantine for two weeks. Eight Boston police officers test positive. Cardinal O'Malley announces meat on Friday is OK for the rest of Lent. Some restaurants are shutting down because take out and delivery wasn't working for them. Mayor Walsh tells people to stop playing sports at local parks, or he'll get really tough. State Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel tests positive. Boston hotels shutting down.

3/28: Outbreaks begin at Massachusetts nursing homes. People file several reports with 311 about people disregarding the mayor's request to stop public sportsballing. Former City Councilor Tito Jackson tests positive.

3/29: Boston parks workers begin tying up baskets at local basketball courts. A long shuttered hospital on Comm. Ave. in Brighton that was slated to be torn down re-opens to treat homeless Covid-19 patients. A local minister discovers Zoombombing. Cambridge reports its first Covid-19 death - a man in his 80s. Some 70 Cambridge residents have tested positive. Revere orders Kelly's and other restaurants along Revere Beach to stop takeout. Somerville bars evictions and prohibits landlords from showing apartments that are still occupied.

3/30: Simply tying up hoops wasn't working, so Boston Parks and Rec begins removing basketball hoops. Cambridge begins work to turn a city recreation center into a homeless shelter with quarantine space.

3/31:

News breaks that veterans at a state home in Holyoke are dying (more); also, five residents of a senior-citizens apartment in Revere have died. Gov. Baker extends ban on non-essential businesses to May 4; orders hotels to rent rooms only to "essential" workers, decrees pot shops non-essential. The feds are seizing ventilators and PPE ordered by Massachusetts. Boston Calling is called off.

April

4/1: Gov. Baker announces the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston will become a field hospital, with 1,000 beds. The Chelsea Soldiers Home reports an outbreak and one death. Sullivan's at Castle Island shuts for a month. Ocean State Job Lot announces emergency pay increases for workers. Baker declares gun shops are non-essential. Boston Public Works asks people to stop throwing used masks and gloves in the street.

4/2:

Gov. Baker reports that he and Bob Kraft have teamed up to buy 1.2 million N95 masks in China and that they are on their way here on the Patriots team plane. Baker revealed how the state hid the shipment from the feds so it wouldn't be seized en route. The plane landed at Logan under the watchful eye of Massachusetts National Guard troops and State Police, there to ensure nothing happened to the masks before they could be safely locked up in a state warehouse. It later turned out many of the masks were unusable. DCR ordered parking lots and spaces at beaches in Boston and Quincy to discourage visitors.

4/3: Gov. Baker announces the state had hired a non-profit public-health concern for contact tracing, and that the company in turn would hire 1,000 people to contact residents with positive test results - and the people who'd come in contact with them. Brookline postpones town elections from May to June, urges residents to vote by absentee ballot. The MBTA reports 24 workers have tested positive for Covid-19 and that all employees are now supposed to have their temperature taken when they report to work. The Supreme Judicial Court ruled Covid-19 means that many people awaiting trial should be released rather than held in lieu of bail. A Back Bay resident reported the trees along the Commonwealth Avenue Mall were spaced just far enough apart to let residents figure out how to have their usual chats while social distancing. The Arnold Arboretum cancels its usual Mother's Day Lilac Sunday.

4/4: A man starts spitting on produce at the Kingston Stop & Shop. Other patrons tackle him and held him until police arrive. Marty the Robot proves useless. The Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents T workers, announces the death of Andrew Wong of Quincy, who had worked at the Southampton bus depot.

4/5: Mayor Walsh sets a voluntary curfew in Boston of 9 p.m., recommends everybody wear a mask while outside, but says people with certain conditions - diabetes, asthma, heart conditions or being over 65 - shouldn't go out at all. With restaurants shutting left and right, Popeyes opens a new outlet on VFW Parkway in West Roxbury. Harvard's Larry Bacow discusses what it was like to have Covid-19 - not good - and says he got one of the tests in short supply not because he's the president of Harvard but because he has an autoimmune disorder.

4/6: The feds promised Massachusetts 1,000 ventilators; Gov. Baker said we're getting 100. Boston announces 2,035 Covid-19 cases in the city. Boston Medical Center had to divert ambulances to other hospitals when its ICU became full.

4/7:

MassArt set aside dorm rooms for up to 150 medical workers who could no longer go home for fear of infecting their families. Boston Pride postpones its 50th-anniversary celebration until next year. A task force of doctors and medical ethicists releases a possible plan for deciding who should be treated first should the state's hospitals be completely overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients.

4/8: The company that runs Faneuil Hall Marketplace said so sad, too bad, but that merchants would have to pay their full rent even with no patrons. Pot shops sue the governor over his ban on their business. Gun shops would eventually file a similar suit. Jon Santiago, not just a state rep but an ER doctor at Boston Medical Center, reports most patients come into the hospital now are testing positive.

4/9:

The city of Somerville cancels all events through the end of June. Chelsea officials urge all residents to lock themselves inside for 24 hours a day as the city becomes a hot spot. The company that runs Faneuil Hall Marketplace decides to give tenants a break after being slammed in the Globe and Mayor Walsh calls its honchos in New York. Mass. General eases its restrictions on visitors to allow dying Covid-19 patients have a family member with them at the end. A Partners Healthcare emergency doctor says social distancing appears to be flattening the curve.

4/10:

The 1,000-bed field hospital inside the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in South Boston opened, one week after its construction started. Half the beds were reserved for homeless people with Covid-19, the other half for other patients referred there to ease overcrowding at local hospitals. Boston releases data showing Blacks were being hit disproportionately hard by the virus. The city and state blocked parking along roads that run along the Arnold Arboretum to try to discourage visitors.

4/11:

So many people are now staying home that New England air pollution levels have come down. Amtrak cancels Downeaster service to and from Maine due to lack of ridership. The feds seize 30,000 protective gowns that had been ordered by Milford-area firefighters and the local hospital.

4/12: The state reports a total of 756 Covid-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic, with 25,474 confirmed cases. In Boston, officials report a total of 58 deaths and 3,916 total cases.

4/13:

Bernie and Phyl's Bernie died of Covid-19; he was 82.

4/14: Mayor Walsh announces the death of Boston Police Officer Jose Fontenez, 52, of Covid-19.

4/15: After testing everybody coming into the Pine Street Inn, officials announces a "stunning" number of people had tested positive but were not showing signs. The outbreak was later linked to the Biogen meeting by comparing the genetic makeup of viral RNA taken from Biogen workers and Pine Street Inn visitors. Brookline orders mandatory outdoor facial covering.

4/16:

4/17: Coronavirus outbreak reported at Shattuck Hospital.

4/18: Springfield-area hospitals report how they tried to hide a shipment of masks from the fed.

4/19: We hit the surge - daily death number of 146. The state reports its new contact tracer have run into a problem: People they call often think they're marketers and won't answer the phone.

4/20: A federal judge denies Covid-19-related early release for a man arrested on drug charges in Hyde Park, saying his asthma isn't that bad and he poses a high flight risk.

4/21:

Gov. Baker orders schools shut through the end of the school year. Some MBTA buses remain packed. The Museum of Science lays off or furloughs most of its staff. Forest Hills Cemetery bans the public from its grounds. A federal judge orders pre-trial release for two men facing drug and gun charges because they suffer from severe asthma.

4/23: Massachusetts reported 3,079 new Covid-19 cases and 178 deaths, numbers Gov. Baker calls "staggering." Hospitals report increases in amputations, ruptured appendixes as patients put off seeking medical care due to coronavirus fears. Some 90% of Massachusetts restaurant workers have lost their jobs. A federal judge denies pre-trial release for a gang member because he's proven to be a menace to society and he's getting good care behind bars for his "moderate" asthma. Another federal judge reduces bail for a Wellesley man charged with shipping anti-submarine equipment to China because earlier hearings were delayed because of Covid-19 issues and he needed some of the money he'd put up for bail to pay his lawyers.

4/24: A federal judge orders the release of a woman being held to await sentencing because Covid-19 delays meant she might otherwise spend more time awaiting sentencing than the possible length of her sentence. A federal judge releases a convicted drug dealer from Dorchester two years early because he's old and has high blood pressure and diabetes.

4/25: A group of friends enjoy a leisurely, maskless croquet match on Boston Common.

4/26: Boston Beer Co. is recouping some of its losses from beer returned from restaurants and bars by distilling it for use in higher-octane beverages or hand sanitizer.

4/27: The state court system postpones all jury trials until at least July 1. Somerville requires outdoor mask use; Cambridge joins in.

4/28: Gov. Baker extends the state of emergency until at least May 18. The Cambridge City Council gets Zoombombed. State officials report 3,153 Massachusetts residents have now died from Covid-19 - compared to 1,809 in California, which has five times our population.

4/29: Guy charged with plotting to rob a Mexican-cocaine stash house ruled too dangerous and his asthma too mild to be allowed out while awaiting trial.

4/30: Worcester orders the local Walmart shut after 23 workers test positive. Gov. Baker says nobody from Massachusetts is driving to Maine for a haircut; Hair Twitter erupts.

May

5/1: Gov. Baker orders people to wear masks in public places. Extreme obesity and asthma fails to outweigh his risk to society, so an allleged leader of a Mattapan branch of the Latin Kings remains behind bars while awaiting trial. Mayor Walsh announces annoyance at "millennials" for not masking up outdoors. The judge who ruled a guy charged with plotting to hold up a Mexican cartel stash house rules the feds have to hand over documents to his lawyer and cannot wait until after he's been formally indicted, since grand juries aren't sitting due to Covid-19 and he has a constitutional right to the documents that trumps Covid-19.

5/2: A Northeastern graduate student sues his school over the shift from in-person to online learning. He is eventually joined by students at numerous other local schools suing for the same reason. Supermarkets being to deal with product shortages by tapping into what is normally the restaurant trade for things such as 6.63-lb. cans of chickpeas.

5/4: Ten months from now, the thing for politicians will be to get vaccine shots, allegedly to boost public confidence, but now, Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu has herself photographed getting a Covid-19 test. MassDOT reported that the state's traffic fatality rate had increased even though the numbers of people on the roads had dropped, so urged people to stop driving like maniacs. Doctors at Beth Israel Hospital reported the president's cure-du-jour, hydroxychloroquine, could lead to a potentially fatal heart problem, especially when paired with his other alleged cure, an antibiotic. White nationalists demand the right to breathe on people in a small demonstration at the State House.

5/5: Some 54 residents of a Medford nursing home die from Covid-19. Angell Memorial Medical Center had to deny rumors that any dogs there had died from the virus. State tax officials reports state sales-tax revenues dropped 52% in April.

5/6: Organizers of the August St. Anthony's Feast in the North End announces its cancelation.

5/7:

A federal judge ruled the state can't help the newly unemployed by banning debt collectors from calling them. Another federal judge overturns the state's order shutting gun shops because the Second Amendment trumps Covid-19.

5/8: The Pops cancels the July 4th celebration on the Esplanade. Northeastern announces it would re-open its campus in September, but to fewer students - who would have to agree to take lots of Covid-19 tests. With fewer riders, the MBTA took the opportunity to speed up planned Blue Line repair work downtown.

5/11: With numbers beginning to moderate, Gov. Baker announces a four-stage re-opening plan to start May 18. Mayor Walsh announces Boston was beginning to look at letting restaurants open patio spaces on sidewalks and in parking spaces outside their dining rooms. A Boston meeting on helping small businesses was Zoombombed.

5/13: Harvard announces that new students at its medical and dental schools would start the fall semester remotely.

5/14: A man indicted for 11 armed robberies in East Boston and neighboring cities asked to be allowed to await trial at his mother's home in Chelsea because he is overweight and has severe asthma and high blood pressure. A federal judge rejects the request, ruling he was too much of a threat to society and, given the potential sentence he faces, too much of a flight risk. More than one million Massachusetts residents have filed for unemployment payments - more than at the peak of the 2008-2009 recession, although the numbers include freelance and other workers who were ineligible for payments then.

5/15: The state trial courts postpone jury trials until at least September as judges and court officials try to figure out how to hold trials safely. Boston officials tell restaurant-delivery companies to do something about the fees they charge restaurants, or the city will do it for them. A convicted money launderer for a Colombian drug cartel is allowed out of prison six months early because he's 76, suffers from diabetes, asthma and high blood pressure and has just one kidney because he had to have one removed after he was diagnosed with renal cancer.

5/16: Somerville cancels public events for the rest of the year, including the annual Fluff festival.

5/17: Gov. Baker allows houses of worship to re-open, but not at full capacity. State Rep. Liz Miranda (D-5th Suffolk discusses recovering from Covid-19 - along with 15 of her 20 family members.

5/18: Numbers continue to drop; Mass General has reduced the number of ICU beds and started re-opening operating rooms for non-Covid-19 patients. Gov. Baker announces factories and construction sites can start up again, as can some offices, with reduced capacity. Mayor Walsh announces Boston will wait a week to make sure things are in order. State Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge reports a death threat after calling on Baker to keep the shutdowns in place.

5/19: New Floridan Tom Brady begins hawking $45 bottles of "immunity" supplements. Although some Catholic churches will re-open on Sunday, the archdiocese says the dispensation from physical Mass attendance will remain in place.

5/20: Massachusetts reported its 6,000th Covid-19 death, just two months after the first one. A Harvard graduate student files one of those anti-online lawsuits, but under a pseudonym because of how nasty and vindictive she says Harvard is.

5/21: Although regular juries are no longer meeting, grand juries are - under strict social-distancing rules, which is how a former Transit Police officer was indicted on charges of raping two women after giving them a ride in his cruiser. Forest Hills Cemetery announces it will reopen to the public in a few days - but no more jogging, bicycling or dog walking. Sullivan's at Castle Island reopens.

5/25: Overnight, volunteers plant flags on the Common in honor of Massachusetts service members killed on duty - after the usually large display had been called off.

5/26: With patient loads at local hospitals dropping, Gov. Baker announces the convention-center hospital is no longer admitting patients. The Franklin Park Zoo and the Stone Zoo announce plans to re-open the following week, with admittance limited to people who buy tickets online.

5/28: Mayor Walsh and the BAA announce they've called off the Marathon they had tried to reschedule for September. Brookline announces the end of overnight parking.

5/30: The state announces it was lifting its ban on bottle and can redemption at supermarkets.

June

6/2: The Marshfield Fair announces it was canceling the fall event.

6/3: The last three patients at the convention-center field hospital were discharged.

6/6: Gov. Baker announces that with Covid-19 numbers continuing to fall, restaurants, stores, hotels, playgrounds, pools and some camps could re-open, but with new restrictions - restaurants, for example, could only serve diners outdoors.

6/8:

Boston restaurants re-open for sit-down dining, at outdoor patios.

6/9: Boston public-health officials urge anybody who'd attended a recent protest to get tested. Results from protest-related pop-up testing eventually show a lower rate of infection than among the general population.

6/10: Mayor Walsh announces 200 Boston restaurants have approval to offer sit-down dining outside.

6/14: The owner of a NutraLife smoothie shop in Plymouth sues over mask requirements saying she's healthy and the requirement limits her right to free speech. Also, not all that many people have died, and besides, most of them were old people, anyway.

6/17: There's nothing cruel and unusual in keeping an alleged Latin Kings drug dealer behind bars to await trial when he's a flight risk and otherwise healthy after recovering from Covid-19, a federal judge rules. Bella Luna Restaurant and Milkyway Lounge in Jamaica Plain announces it was closing forever because Covid-19 had ended its role as a social gathering place.

6/18: A Brigham and Women's Hospital ER doctor and biostatistician reported Boston was no longer seeing "excess" deaths over prior years.

6/19: Gov. Baker announces restaurants would soon be able to resume limited indoor dining.

6/22: Federal officials charge a Winchester man with fraud for allegedly making up employee numbers to qualify for new federal payroll loans for small businesses. The feds add that all of the employees the man did have are in India, and foreign employees don't count for the loan program. A site that tracks Covid-19 transmission rates said Massachusetts had the lowest rate in the country.

6/23: A federal judge rejects Covid-19 early release for a man who hired a hitman - who turned out to be a state trooper - to kill his wife and then tried to hire another hitman to kill the state trooper. The judge rules that even though the man has leukemia and had contracted Covid-19 in prison, his now ex-wife remains terrified of him and plotting repeated murders is a really serious offense. Also, his leukemia is chronic, not acute. DCR reopens Parkman Drive next to Jamaica Pond to car traffic, now that more people are out and about in their cars.

6/24: The BPDA reminded the company that runs Faneuil Hall Marketplace that it's the city that owns the property and it's going to want it back if the company doesn't start doing better by the tenants.

6/29: Mayor Walsh feels compelled to tell people flocking to South Boston beaches to stop relieving themselves in nearby residents' yards. The Big E is canceled.

6/30: The daily state Covid-19 dashboard shows no deaths from the virus. UMass Amherst announces that students who really want to return to campus can do so, just not the main campus, but instead the far smaller former Mt. Ida campus it now owns in Newton. A gym owner sues Gov. Baker for the right to let his members lift things up and put them down again. The state lifts its self-quarantine requirement for visitors from New England, New York and New Jersey. A federal judge agrees to let a Brighton Center bank robber spend the last 31 months of his sentence at home because he is 68 and has high blood pressure.

July

7/1:

7/2: Maine decides we're still too germy and so requires Massachusetts visitors to quarantine for two weeks, unlike visitors from the other New England states, who can just show up and start gallivanting and eating lobster. Gov. Baker gives gyms and museums outside Boston the right to re-open, with limits, in four days, although in Somerville, officials delay gym openings until July 13. A man in Plymouth learns you can face felony charges if you deliberately cough on people and tell them you hope they get Covid-19.

7/4:

7/5: Spleen-venting covidiots scream and throw ice-cream cones at workers at a Northampton ice-cream shop when told to put a mask on.

7/6: The Marriott Long Wharf, yes, that Marriott Long Wharf, re-opens. Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards files a proposed ordinance to require local hotels to clean and sanitize all their rooms once a day, even if occupied by long-term guests, after getting reports that some guests were throwing parties in their rooms. Gov. Baker signs a bill to send out 4.5 million absentee-ballot applications to Massachusetts voters who would prefer to vote at home rather than in person at a polling place.

7/7: Boston-area museums begin to announce re-opening plans. Mayor Walsh dreams of a day when tourists flock to Boston because we've done such a good job driving down Covid-19 rates.

7/8: A man pulls a gun on somebody refusing to put a mask on at a local drugstore; he is arrested.

7/9: The Ivy League cancels fall sports. Colleges in Boston begin to announce plans to rent out some of those vacant hotel rooms to house students this fall as a way to minimize congregating in dorms. The owners of the Somervill Theatre and the Capitol Theatre in Arlington announce they will remain shut even though the governor said it was OK for them to reopen. Galway House in Jamaica Plain anounces it is not dead.

7/10: The Boston Housing Authority announces it was suspending "non-essential" evictions for the rest of the year.

7/13:

Gyms, Duck Boats re-start in Boston. Northeastern, Boston University look to hire lots of techs for their in-house Covid-19 testing efforts for students and staffers, which would double the number of tests done statewide.

7/14: The MBTA announces the end of the free ride on buses and parts of the Green Line: Riders will have to board in the front again and pay their fares. Mayor Walsh announces Boston stores could keep using thin plastic bags until Sept. 30. Sam Adams, which had just re-opened its Faneuil Hall taproom, announces it was shutting it again because of an influx of tourists from places where the virus is out of control. A guy walks up and down Centre Street in Jamaica Plain trying to get stores to post his signs that maskless people were welcome and that the stores wouldn't enforce mask rules because of the Fourth Amendment and "HIPPA" (note: It's HIPAA and has nothing to do with mask rules).

7/15: The Head of the Charles Regatta becomes the latest canceled fall event. The family that runs the Swan Boats announces there just won't be swan boats in the Public Garden this summer.

7/16: A developer tells the BPDA it will soon file plans for a mixed-use complex in Allston designed for a post-Covid world, featuring "new design, engineering and operating strategies in light of this new normal."

7/17: Uh, oh: Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone delays health-club and theater re-openings because of what he called a "modest" rise in new Covid-19 cases in the Boston area.

7/19: A war of words erupts on Boston's 311 system, between those upset about the maskless at Castle Island and those who reply that the kvetchers should shut their mouths and stay locked inside.

7/20: Gov. Baker signs a bill letting restaurants sell cocktails to go with take-out meals.

7/21:

Gov. Baker extends the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures until Oct. 17. Boston reopens pools in Charlestown and the North End and creates a temporary bike lane on Tremont Street downtown.

7/24: Gov. Baker announces a $500 fine for people from high-risk states somehow caught not observing a two-week quarantine on their arrival here. A federal judge dismisses the gym suit over the state order shutting gyms partly because its lifting made the matter moot, partly because the governor has the right to act to protect public health during a pandemic.

7/25: Former state Rep. Marty Walz snaps a photo of a crowded deck on a harbor cruise ship, wonders how that's allowed.

7/27: Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez contracts Covid-19 and develops an inflammation of his heart lining. State figures show 200 new Covid-19 cases a day for four days in a row, the first time that's happened since mid-June. State officials agree to shorten the school year and let school start later in the fall to allow more time for them to ensure they're safe.

7/28: City and state health officials order Bay State Cruise Lines to stop harbor cruises after that photo of a packed deck on one of its ships gets widespread play.

7/29: The owner of Cheers sues his insurer for refusing to cover Covid-19-related losses. Legal Seafood had earlier filed a similar suit. The organizers of the Topsfield Fair cancel this year's fair.

7/31: Northeastern announces students returning to campus will have to first quarantine and get negative results on three straight Covid-19 tests before being allowed out.

August

8/1: Eduardo Rodriguez is put on the disabled list for the rest of the shortened season.

8/3: State figures show the rate of people testing positive is going back up.

8/4: Boston City Councilor Kenzie Bok demands local colleges keep their students home. They don't. Somerville announces school will start with remote learning only. Massachusetts declares Rhode Islanders too risky, says they have to quarantine for two weeks if they come here.

8/6: The refurbished Mayflower II skips a Rhode Island visit on its way back to Plymouth from Mystic, CT, because of the new state restrictions on travelers from the Ocean State.

8/7: Gov. Baker reduces the maximum number of people allowed at a gathering from 100 to 50 and authorizes state and local police to issue fines for flouters, due to a rising Covid-19 rate.

8/13: The state cuts parking spaces at Nantasket Beach by 50% to discourage visitors.

8/17: Boston announces school won't start until Sept. 21, with a "hybrid" model in which students would split time between schools and their homes. Parents would be allowed to opt out of in-school learning.

8/18: A Dorchester man expresses outrage that State Police busted up a party he threw at the Encore casino, because people are so over coronavirus.

8/21: BPS announces it will start the school year with remote learning only.

8/22: The Kenmore Army and Navy Store in Downtown Crossing becomes the latest local concern to sue its insurer over Covid-19 losses.

8/25: A new paper uses genetic sampling to show how the Biogen conference spread the virus around the world and, locally, to several cities and the Pine Street Inn.

September

9/3: The BAA suspends registration for the 2021 Boston Marathon to let an advisory group determine if a safe race is even possible. A federal judge denies early release for a man convicted of selling drugs at the Mildred Hailey Apartments in Jamaica Plain, saying his "latent" tuberculosis and PTSD are not listed as potential Covid-19 risks and he'd failed to prove he was reformed enough to warrant being let out. Lir on Boylston Street announces that, like the other bars on its block, it was shutting down.

9/4: Northeastern boots the Westin 11 - students found congregating in a room at the Westin in Copley Square, where the university had rented most of the floors to house students.

9/4: A Weymouth bar whose owner declared coronavirus BS has its license lifted by a state board that disagrees.

9/5: The Gap sues the landlord of its Coolidge Corner store over the landlord's demand for rent even though the store had no choice but to close due to Gov. Baker's March orders.

9/6: The MFA announces it would reopen at the end of the month.

9/10: Boston College had an outbreak among members of its swimming and diving teams. Dedham postpones plans for in-school learning after a sharp rise in the local Covid-19 rate, which town officials linked to a couple of parties in town.

9/13: Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School puts off in-class learning after students are caught at a boozy party.

9/14: Dover-Sherborn High School puts off in-class learning after students are caught at an "out of control" party.

9/17: Northeastern decides the Westin 11 won't lose their tuition if they return in the spring, but are still suspended for the fall.

9/18: Winthrop Police fine a resident $300 for throwing a loud, maskless party.

9/20: A Seaport developer asks the BPDA for permission to change several floors in a proposed 18-story building from office space to biotech research space, which is suddenly in high demand.

9/22: Sam Adams reopens its taproom with limited hours.

9/23: Maine re-welcomes Massachusetts residents without them having to quarantine.

9/25: Brigham and Women's confirms a Covid-19 outbreak stemming from two medical/surgical units. A guy asked to put on a mask in a Cambridge market spits on some of its food.

9/29: Salt Bae comes to Boston, causes a ruckus and promptly has his steak place shut down until his sub-Baes file a plan to keep patrons and workers properly distanced and masked.

9/30: Mayor Walsh reports positive test rates in Boston keep increasing - up to 7% in some neighborhoods. The state puts Boston into red on its risk map.

October

10/1: BPS re-opens in-school education for "high needs" students, such as special-education and homeless students.

10/6: Stoddards downtown shuts for good.

10/7:

With Boston rates continuing to rise, BPS postpones the planned start of re-opening schools by a week. A developer files new plans for a proposed residential building on Washington Street in Jamaica Plain calling for fewer units to allow for more "flex space" in the remaining ones so that residents can more easily work at home in a pandemic.

10/9: State figures show Covid-19 hopsitalizations up 47% over a months ago. More restaurants announce winter hibernation plans.

10/10: A federal judge tosses an Oregon trucker's suit that she be allowed to roam Massachusetts in general and Walmarts in particular without a mask - just one day after the trucker filed her complaint. The judge rules she had no "standing" because she offered no proof she'd even been to Massachusetts this year.

10/12: City Councilor Ed Flynn calls for a crackdown on jammed house parties in South Boston.

10/14: With Boston showing 11.1 new Covid-19 cases each day per 100,000 residents, the city remains in the state's red zone for the third week in a row.

10/18: The state's moratorium on evictions, foreclosures ends.

10/21:

BPS suspends all in-school programs due to rising Covid-19 rates. Salem, state officials try to convince people to stay away from Salem on Halloween. Testing of sewage at Deer Island foretells further Covid-19 increases.

10/22: At what turns out to be a controversial meeting for more than one reason, the Boston School Committee votes to suspend the use of exams for exam-school admission for one year. BU announces a dozen students had been suspendedfor attending parties with rollicking masklessness, along with more traditional drunkeness and violence. The state orders indoor hockey rinks shut for two weeks due to a rise in cases linked to youth hockey.

10/23: For the second day in a row, the state reports more than 900 new cases, for the first time since mid-May. Salem says, no, really, we mean it, stay away.

10:/24: The state breaks 1,000 new cases for the first time since mid-May; Deer Island testing suggests numbers could go even higher.

10/27: The freedom-loving smoothie-shop owner from Plymouth has her suit against masks dismissed because she failed to prove she'd actually been harmed by the state order.

10/28: The BAA announces it's calling off the 2021 race, but hopes it might run it next fall.

10/29: The latest city figures are not good. Mayor Walsh says everybody should get a Covid-19 test.

10/31: A Roslindale resident uses snow from the October storm to create a socially distanced Halloween-treat luge.

November

11/2: Gov. Baker sets a voluntary 10 p.m. curfew, tells restaurants to stop serving patrons at 9:30 and says everybody should always wear a mask outside.

11/5:

The Brookside Community Health Center in Jamaica Plain ends its outdoor testing site with a plea for justice.

11/6: The state reports 2,000 new Covid-19 cases today, the first time we've seen numbers that high since early May. The MBTA announces it's going to enforce the mask rule, but this time it really means it. Boston School Superintendent Brenda Casellius tells parents of high-needs students those with "complex needs" will be allowed to return to school the following week, for both education and the services they had been getting at school. Four schools would re-open for roughly 150 students.

11/9: With ridership still way down, the MBTA proposes drastic service cuts.

11/10: Organizers announce First Night will be held entirely online and on TV.

11/11; Massachusetts Covid-19 cases hit a new fall high of 2,495; Deer Island testing suggests numbers will rise higher.

11/12: Massachusetts reports its 10,000th Covid-19 death. A man was arrested on charges he beat an MBTA bus driver in Dorchester who asked him to put a mask on. Religious anti-vaxxers sue to keep their kids from having to get flu shots. MIT reports a "troubling uptick" in cases at its Sloan School.

11/13: Gov. Baker announces the state will re-open its Worcester field hospital in December. The state reports 2,674 new Covid-19 cases, compared to 354 on Sept. 1.

11/14: New Covid-19 case numbers hit 2,841, a 150% increase over just two weeks. A Cohasset couple is fined $500 for allowing a teen 'rona rager.

11/16: The Navy shuts Old Ironsides to visitors.

11/17: The 2021 Beanpot Tournament is canceled.

11/18: Boston offers simple advice on having people over for Thanksgiving: Don't.

11/19: State figures show 917 people hospitalized with Covid-19 - up 168% from a month earlier. A federal judge agrees to a compassionate early release for a guy who robbed a Beacon Hill bank in 2015 and then tried to make a getaway in a cab, because he's 60 and suffers from a medical condition that would put him at high risk if he contracted the virus.

11/20: Salem walking-tour operators sue Gov. Baker over the way the state effectively limits the size of each tour to just a dozen people, saying their First Amendment right to tell spooky stories to visitors trumps any public-health considerations, and what about all those BLM demonstrations and church services, huh?

11/23: A federal judge dismisses a Weymouth man's suit against the state over its spring Covid-19 restrictions because he could not prove he'd suffered any specific harm himself and that being asked to wear a mask while interacting with neighbors' children was not something you can sue over. It's like March all over again: A small Boston bank shut one branch and limits customer access to others.

11/24: Attorney General Maura Healey announces a suit against Boston Sports Clubs over the way it handled, or didn't, customer requests to cancel their memberships because of Covid-19.

11/25: Mayor Walsh announces Boston's Covid-19 rate actually dropped, for the first time in five weeks. Somerville's ONCE Lounge and Ballroom becomes the latest entertainment venue to shut permanently.

11/28: The number of people hospitalized in Massachusetts with Covid-19 exceeds 1,000, for the first time since June 15.

December

12/2: The state reports 4,613 new Covid-19 cases, the highest number ever.

12/3: That didn't last long: Mayor Walsh reports Boston's Covid-19 numbers are going up again, and fast: 825 cases over the previous two days - compared to around 185 new cases a day just a couple weeks earlier. He warns the next step might be a spring-like shutdown. The state, meanwhile, set another record for daily cases - 5,797.

12/6: Taking note of the Deer Island numbers, one public-health expert tears into Charlie Baker for not doing more.

12/7: With hospitalizaton rates on the rise, Gov. Baker announces hospitals will soon curtail elective surgery that would require a hospital stay if they can be safely postponed. The ICA says it will close its doors again to protect visitors and employees. BPS say it will open more schools for high-needs students.

12/8:

The Deer Island sampling goes into a hockey-stick mode.

12/9:

Gov. Baker announces a multi-month, three-phase program to get residents vaccinated. It starts with front-line health-care workers and ends with enough vaccine on hand sometime in April through June that anybody who wants a shot can get one.

12/10:

The Supreme Judicial Court upholds Baker's right to order Covid-19 restrictions under a 1950 civil-defense law, in a case brought by health clubs, tanning salons, several churches and a North End resident. The court cites a 1905 Supreme Court decision involving a fine levied against a Cambridge minister who refused to have himself or his son vaccinated against smallpox in the middle of a smallpox epidemic that set out the principle that public officials have a responsibility to protect the public health. Latest state figures show Covid-19 hospitalization has increased eightfold since Sept. 1; now at 1,607 people. Keolis announces it's slashing commuter-rail schedules in half because so many workers have Covid-19 or are in quarantine.

12/11: A federal judge denies Covid-19 early release for a BPDA manager sentenced in January for taking a bribe to help throw a zoning decision. John Lynch had asked to finish his 40-month sentence at home because he is 68 and suffers from several medical conditions. But the judge ruled no inmates at Devens, where he now lives, have contracted the virus and that he needs more time to consider the seriousness of what he did.

12/13: The Children's Museum announces it is shutting down through Jan. 7.

12/14: Boston Medical Center gets the state's first vials of the new Pfizer vaccine. Boston, several other cities order museums, tours and health clubs shut for three weeks. Hennessy's downtown announces it's shutting for the winter, but asks that you not call it "hibernation," because that sounds kind of pleasant and what it has to do is anything but.

12/16: Brookline extends outdoor dining through the winter.

12/17: A Braintree city councilor rants against masks and shutdowns.

12/18: A Quincy man is charged with selling bleach-dispensing cards as protection against Covid-19.

12/19: State stats show 91% of Boston-area hospital beds are now occupied.

12/21: In an emergency hearing, he Boston Licensing Board slams a North End restaurant for Covid-19 violations that included letting a violinist play for patrons, servers not wearing masks, too many people at a table.

12/22: Gov. Baker tightens restrictions on businesses and gatherings as number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients rises above 2,000.