In response to the coronavirus, officials across the region have essentially canceled April, and May is still in jeopardy. With residents shut in at home, public spaces remain eerily quiet and businesses shuttered. The resulting calm masks a parallel reality as those on the front lines are scrambling to prepare for a surge of infections with no clear ending.
Cashier George Wallace, center, works while standing behind a plastic shield Thursday, March 26, 2020, at the checkout in a grocery store, in Quincy, Mass. Grocery stores across the region and country are installing protective plastic shields at checkouts to help keep cashiers and shoppers from infecting each other with the coronavirus. (Steven Senne/AP)
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The streets surrounding Fenway Park, normally bustling with tourists, are quiet on March 26, 2020, just days ahead of what would have been the Red Sox home opener. (Meredith Nierman/WGBH News)
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Linda Vieira, 70, is assistant site manager for the Meals on Wheels program in Lowell, run by Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley and North Shore. She oversees 15 drivers and delivers 60 meals on weekdays to homebound elders in Lowell. She is a resident of Tyngsboro and has been doing the work for 14 years.
People leave a food distribution center in the East Boston neighborhood of Boston, Friday, March 27, 2020. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has ordered all schools in the state to remain closed through April. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
The marquee of the Paramount Theater in Boston displays a message about social distancing on March 27, 2020. The theater, along with other arts institutions in the region, closed as a precaution against the spread of the virus. (Meredith Nierman/WGBH News)
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A woman wears a protective mask while sitting with another person in the Seaport District in Boston on March 27, 2020. (Meredith Nierman/WGBH News)
Members of the Rhode Island National Guard look for passengers getting off from a train from New York as it arrives Saturday, March 28, 2020, in Westerly, R.I. States are pulling back the welcome mat for travelers from the New York area, which is the epicenter of the region's coronavirus outbreak. (David Goldman/AP)
Medical personnel wait to screen people arriving at a special COVID-19 testing site in Boston, Saturday, March 28, 2020. The drive-thru testing site is only open to qualified first responders who meet the state criteria for testing. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
Two women keep their distance while talking in Piers Park in Boston, Saturday, March 28, 2020. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
A woman takes an online yoga class in her home in West Newton, Mass. on March 28, 2020. As yoga studios, gyms and other exercise facilities across the country have closed as a precaution against the coronavirus, many people are turning to online streaming classes to stay active. (Meredith Nierman/WGBH News)
South Station is nearly empty on March 29, 2020 in Boston. Ridership has declined sharply due to coronavirus-related school closures and people working from home. In response to the virus, the MBTA has reduced service and enhanced cleaning protocols. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Palettes of N95 respirator masks are off-loaded from the New England Patriots football team's customized Boeing 767 jet on Thursday, April 2, 2020, at Logan Airport in Boston, after returning from China. The Kraft family deployed the team plane to fetch more than one million masks for use by front-line health care workers. (Elise Amendola/AP)
