[1] The city has enacted a variety of public health measures in an attempt to curb the spread of the virus, including limiting business activities, suspending non-essential work, and closing down schools.

[2] Sources: [3][4] Mayor Muriel Bowser signed an executive order on February 28, 2020, that began to prepare Washington, D.C., for coronavirus impacts.

The executive order stated that the District's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) would be activated on March 2, 2020, to begin to "coordinate inter-agency information sharing and identify logistical needs for critical incident responses."

Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency held a public briefing on the coronavirus and the District's monitoring, preparation, and response.

The first case was a rector at Christ Church Georgetown who had not traveled outside the United States recently or had close contact with another confirmed infected coronavirus patient.

He had attended the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes conference in Louisville, Kentucky from February 19–22, then traveled back to Washington, by which time he became sick with what he thought was the flu.

[14] On March 11, Maria Cantwell, a U.S. senator from Washington state, closed her D.C. office due to one of her aides testing positive for the virus.

[26] On March 18, at least 8 more cases were found, including a DC FEMS employee (leading to a quarantine of 73 firefighters), a U.S. marshal at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and an undergraduate student at the George Washington University who lives off-campus.

Metro ridership reduced by 85% due to the pandemic, leading to general manager Paul Wiedefeld submitting a request to Congress for emergency funding.

[31] On March 20, Mayor Bowser announced the first death related to COVID-19 in the District, a 59-year-old man, Deacon Brother John-Sebastian Laird-Hammond, OFM, a Franciscan friar and permanent deacon, a native of Minonk, Illinois, with underlying medical conditions, specifically a multi-year battle with a type of leukemia who had been undergoing cancer treatments and was therefore more vulnerable to the virus.

[1] On March 23, Mayor Bowser and Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt announced that the 2019 tax filing deadlines would be pushed to July 15, instead of the upcoming April 15.

[51] On June 2, during some of the most intense demonstrations, some protesters were arrested and charged with "wearing a hood-mask" in addition to curfew violations, even though masks were mandatory at the time.

[52] On June 22, with the move to phase 2 of the reopening plan, indoor dining was permitted to begin at 50% capacity, although bar sitting was to remain closed.

[57][58][59] The White House resisted efforts to engage in contact tracing, leaving it unclear how many people were infected in total and what the origins of the spread were.

[60] Many of the infections appeared to be related to a ceremony held on September 26 in the Rose Garden for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, where seating was not socially distanced and participants were mostly unmasked.

Trump himself may have been infectious at that point, but he and his entourage attended several subsequent events unmasked, including the first presidential debate against Joe Biden in Cleveland, Ohio on September 29.

[61] The next day, Presidential Counselor Hope Hicks was placed in quarantine aboard Air Force One while returning with Trump from a campaign event in Minnesota.

[62] More infections were reported in late October among Vice President Mike Pence's staff,[63] and a second large outbreak occurred after Election Day, after Trump held a watch party in the East Room.

[64] Other infections included First Lady Melania Trump; GOP Senators Thom Tillis, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson; GOP Representative Matt Gaetz; Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien; RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel; former White House counselor Kellyanne Conway; former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins; Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany; presidential advisor Stephen Miller; Chief of Staff Mark Meadows; and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson.

[57][58] At least one person, White House security office head Crede Bailey, was reported as "gravely ill."[65] On October 5, DC Public Schools announced an updated reopening plan, with certain elementary students having an option of in-person or virtual learning starting on November 9, with secondary schools remaining as virtual instruction until February 1.

[75] Activist Tim "Baked Alaska" Gionet participated in the riot despite a recent positive diagnosis,[76] and few members of the crowd wore face coverings, with many coming from out of town.

[75] Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, said that the rioters' failure to "adhere to the fundamentals of public health" to prevent the spread of COVID-19—such as "universal wearing of masks, keeping physical distance, [and] avoiding crowds in congregate settings"—placed them at risk.

[77] The day after the event, Eric Toner, a senior scholar from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said the storming of the Capitol was "extraordinarily dangerous" from a public-health perspective.

[79][80] A video of members of Congress sheltering in place shows a group of maskless Republicans, including Andy Biggs, Scott Perry, Michael Cloud and Markwayne Mullin, refusing masks offered by Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester; Blunt Rochester later wrote that she was "disappointed in my colleagues who refused to wear a mask" but "encouraged by those who did.

[81] Representative Jacob LaTurner tested positive after the lockdown was lifted, and, as a result, was absent from the House floor when the Electoral College certification resumed.

[86] On January 25, the commander of the District of Columbia National Guard, Major General William Walker, said that nearly 200 troops deployed to the capital had tested positive for COVID-19.

The order further closed to the public all facilities that the District's Department of Recreation operated, including playgrounds, parks, and athletic fields.

[94] However, The Washington Post reported on March 28 that the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia had designated construction as "essential," along with hospitals, grocery stores, banks and several other types of businesses.

[95] The Post reported that John Falcicchio, Bowser's chief of staff, had stated that the District, Maryland and Virginia had agreed to follow the federal guidance declaring construction to be essential work.

However, the Post reported that several states, including Pennsylvania and Vermont, had suspended or prohibited all construction work (except for emergencies) as unnecessary during a public health crisis.