Year in Review: COVID 2021 Timeline
By Jay Turner
Hansen students & Principal David Brauninger welcome K-2 students back to ‘all-in’ learning. (Cynthia Rosina photo)
See this week’s print edition of the Citizen for more news and notables from the past year, including our annual sports awards.
From the emergence of new variants to the endless debates over mask wearing to the surging demand for at-home rapid tests, COVID-19 remained a ubiquitous presence in our lives throughout the duration of 2021. Below are some of the notable local milestones that occurred during year two of America’s deadliest pandemic.
January: The Canton Board of Health officially kicked off its COVID vaccination program with an initial round of clinics for first responders held at Canton Fire headquarters. That same week, several area nursing homes and senior living facilities also held clinics as hundreds of the town’s most vulnerable residents received their first doses.
February: As the eligible population continued to expand, demand for the vaccine greatly outpaced supply, creating a logistical nightmare as residents raced to nab an appointment. In Canton, multiple agencies began keeping wait lists, prompting the BOH to temporarily adopt a lottery system to fill its limited appointment slots. Shipments to municipalities also began to dry up and for a time stopped completely as the state increasingly focused on the “mass vaccination” sites at places like Gillette Stadium.
March/April: After spending the first seven months of the school year divided into cohorts and learning remotely from home at least three days per week, Canton students finally made their return to fully in-person learning as CPS went “all in” for the spring. The successful transition began in mid March for the youngest grades and culminated with the return of high school students in late April.
May/June: Buoyed by rapidly declining COVID case numbers and one of the nation’s highest vaccination rates, Governor Charlie Baker announced the lifting of all COVID restrictions, including the existing face covering order and any remaining capacity limits, effective May 29. Two weeks later, the state of emergency was officially lifted as residents celebrated what they believed was the end of the pandemic.
August/September: With the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant igniting a fresh summer surge, a renewed call for face coverings quickly gained traction following the release of new federal and state guidance. Within a matter of weeks, “universal indoor masking” became a statewide requirement in schools, and a new BOH-approved indoor mask mandate took effect throughout all public spaces in Canton. The move was met with considerable backlash, notably from several business owners, but the policy ultimately stood with the caveat being it would be automatically lifted if Canton fell below the “substantial” risk category as determined by the CDC.
November/December: On the same day that the CDC announced the approval of the Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 5-12, the Canton Health Department, in an effort to be proactive and with ample vaccine supply at the ready, quickly moved to schedule a series of clinics geared to the younger population. Hundreds of families took advantage of the free vaccine clinics, and within a matter of weeks, roughly one-sixth of the elementary population had become fully vaccinated, placing Canton among the top 10 in the state for child vaccine distribution. On several occasions throughout the fall, the BOH also made booster shots available as the additional doses continued to gain acceptance as a key preventive measure.
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Posted by Jay Turner
on Jan 7 2022. Filed under Featured Content.
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