The Numbers Tell the Story of Pandemic One Year Later

The bad numbers are going down and the good numbers are going up.

And when it comes to the pandemic, it’s been all about the numbers since it began. On this date a year ago, March 11th, 2020, the day the WHO officially declared a pandemic, the number of total coronavirus cases in the U.S was just over one thousand and the number of deaths was 38.

Now a year later, there have been more than 29 million cases and more than 525,000 deaths.

In California, where some of the first confirmed cases were reported a year ago, there have been 3.5 million cases and there have been 54,000 deaths, more than 3400 of them in San Diego County.

This week the county is reporting a continued decline in infections, now averaging between 300-and-400 a day, down from the 2-3 thousand infections being reported a few weeks ago. And the number of vaccinations that have been given in the county is now above one million and growing every day, and the number of people fully vaccinated is approaching 15-percent.

So one year after the pandemic became official and the shutdowns began and our lives suddenly changed, all the numbers are looking good.

But numbers are just numbers and the story of the last year, that continues now in March of 2021, is about people, the people we have lost to the virus and all the many adults and kids who have lost jobs and lost school days.

And the story isn’t over yet. But we are lot closer to it now than when it began 365 days ago.

(Photo Getty Images)