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After a year of uncertainty, Harvard Square business owners are looking forward to welcoming more tourists and students to the Square in the next few months, now that Covid-19 vaccines are readily available in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Theodora M. “Theo” Skeadas ’12, executive director of Cambridge Local First, a non-profit network of over 450 local and independent businesses in the city, said the Square would “rebound,” though she recognized that recovery will be “difficult” for some businesses. “People are really excited to be social and reconnect, and I’ve been walking around the city, all over the place, and it’s just exciting to see people coming back into the Square and engaging with local businesses,” she said. “The challenge is that we lost a lot of businesses and those are not coming back.” ....
There’s no doubt that the holidays will be very different this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With cases surging in Massachusetts, state officials and public health experts are urging people to be vigilant with masking and social distancing measures, to stay home as much as possible, and limit their in-person celebrations to just within their households. That means no jam-packed crowds of customers can flood local bookstores the week before Christmas this year; efforts to prevent transmission of COVID-19 don’t allow aisles of books to be crammed with people searching for that last-minute, perfect read for a friend or loved one. ....