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Three years ago, the pandemic arrived in Massachusetts

DEDHAM, Mass — This week marks an anniversary many will likely consider unworthy of celebration: the first case of Covid-19 in Massachusetts. The state announced on February 1, 2020 that a man returning from Wuhan, China was infected. He was later identified as a student at UMass-Boston.

More isolated cases followed -- as did a super-spreader event, when nearly 100 became infected after attending a Biogen conference later that month. More alarming, though, the confirmation in early March, 2020 of a Covid-19 infection in a man from the Berkshires with seemingly no reason to get the virus. This became the first evidence of community spread.

And did it spread.

Since that first case, DPH has recorded more than 2 million Covid-19 infections -- a number that is assuredly an underestimate, given so much testing is now done at home.

So far, nearly 24,000 have died from the virus -- including up to 177 just last week. The number dead is about equivalent to the populations of the towns of Dedham or Canton or Reading or Yarmouth.

Infections, at this point, are coming down. But the known positivity rate remains in the 7-9% range -- a proportion that’s barely budged since last May.

Boston 25 News talked with residents anonymously about their memories of Covid-19 -- and how it might have changed them.

“We had been in California to visit our son,” said one woman. “And I think it was the next day that things started closing down.”

Since that time, she has not flown anywhere -- and continues to wear a mask when in crowded spaces.

“I lost a 52-year-old nephew to Covid, a father of three,” said another woman. “And that’s changed our entire family forever, I think.”

That woman added that she worked in a school -- and Covid cases are common.

A woman from Canton was asked if it seemed like Covid was winding down at this point.

“I would have said that until last week,” she said. “My sister just got Covid for the first time through this whole thing.”

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