Monday, December 28, 2020 Editor’s note: This story is the second installment of a four-part series looking back at the year that was — 2020. In the months of April-June, San Marcos saw a tragedy with the killing of San Marcos Police Department Officer Justin Putnam. San Marcans also participated in civil-rights protests seeking justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. As the summer began in 2020, COVID-19 cases began to spike. April On April 1, the Daily Record reported that Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra announced the county would receive 2,000 COVID-19 tests through an agreement with Reliant Immune Diagnostic’s telemedicine application MDBox. The tests, however, would become a source of contention and never became available to the county. The CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System completed its acquisition of Central Texas Medical Center on April 1. The hospital was also renamed to CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital - San Marcos. To combat the economic hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of San Marcos was allocated $6.4 million in CARES Act funding for public transportation and over $425,000 in community development block grant funding in early April. On April 13, the Hays County Local Health Department reported its first COVID-19-related fatality. On April 15, Katerra — a manufacturing company based in Menlo Park, Calif. that planned an automated building component manufacturing and distribution facility in the Whisper development located at Yarrington Road and Harris Hill — announced it was putting its project on hold due to the business environment created by the coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Greg Abbott announced on April 17 that all school districts would remain closed through the remainder of the 2019-2020 school year.