page_title: COVID-19 pandemic in Boston
section_title: April
hierarchical_section_title: COVID-19 pandemic in Boston / Timeline / April
caption_attribution_description: English: The Northeastern University campus during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic after most students had left campus for the semester
context_page_description: The COVID-19 pandemic in Boston is part of an ongoing viral pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 in the Massachusetts city of Boston. The first confirmed case was reported on February 1, 2020, and the number of cases began to increase rapidly by March 8. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, declared a state of emergency on March 10. Mayor Marty Walsh declared a public health emergency on March 15. By March 21, more than a hundred people in Boston had tested positive for COVID-19. Most early cases were traceable to a company meeting held in late February by the biotechnology firm Biogen in Boston.
  New cases peaked on April 24, 2020 at 659, and began to decline after. As of August 20, 2020, there were 15,018 confirmed cases and 746 deaths due to COVID-19 in Boston. 13.3% of cases required hospitalization, 5.1% of cases resulted in death, and 73.5% of cases have recovered. 9.7% of cases were healthcare workers, and 47% of deaths were in long-term care facilities. As of August 13, Boston had completed 139,119 molecular tests, 10.9% of which came back positive. In Boston, 2,047.6 residents had been tested per 10,000 residents.
context_section_description: On April 2, Mayor Walsh announced plans to convert the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC) into a field hospital with 500 beds assigned to the homeless and 500 to accept COVID-19 patients from city hospitals. On April 5, Mayor Walsh announced new regulations for social distancing in Boston. He encouraged everyone to wear a face covering when outside. The BPHC ordered for everyone except essential workers stay at home from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am every day, enforcing a curfew.
  On April 5, Boston City Hall was closed to the public except for Tuesdays and Fridays, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Every individual entering City Hall, including employees, was required to complete a self-screening for COVID-19 symptoms. On April 9, MIT published a study of sewage samples taken in the Boston area on March 25, to determine the extent of COVID-19 infections. The study suggested that approximately 115,000 of the Boston region's 2.3 million people were infected. At the time of sampling, Boston had only 284 confirmed cases in the area.
  On April 10, Boston reduced parking near the Arnold Arboretum. On April 16, Mayor Walsh announced that a thousand residents will be invited to a Massachusetts study related to COVID-19 antibody testing. On April 21, Governor Baker announced the closure of all K-12 schools in Massachusetts through the end of the school year. On April 22, former 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts announced that her oldest brother had died from COVID-19 in Oklahoma.
  On April 25, Governor Baker addressed the topic of when stay-at-home measures and closures of non-essential businesses would end. When restrictions were originally announced in mid-March, they were to end at noon on April 7; later their projected end date was pushed to May 4. Baker said it was unlikely restrictions would be lifted by then because the surge of cases had hit later than expected – May 4 presumed a surge in early April. Baker said the process of reopening will begin when hospitalizations start to decline consistently, and when there is "some evidence that we are in fact over the hump ... with respect to the surge."
  On April 27, Boston Public Health Commission extended the public health emergency declaration until further notice. On April 28, Governor Baker extended the stay-at-home advisory and non-essential business closure to May 18. He also said that once the advisory expires, the process of reopening will begin in stages, and not happen all at once. On April 29, the Public Health Advisory enforcing a curfew in Boston was extended to May 18.
caption: An empty Northeastern University in Boston after most of the students were required to leave
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