On Jan. 9, 2020, the WHO announced a mysterious coronavirus pneumonia, called SARS-CoV-2, was found in Wuhan, China. Less than two weeks later, on Jan. 21, the first case of this illness was confirmed in the United States by the CDC.

Nearly a year later, and Covid-19 is still very much a part of everyone’s lives. 

When Americans first heard about the virus, they didn’t worry too much about it. After all, China is on the other side of the globe.

“I thought it was going to be like Ebola and not affect us at all and it would go away in about a year,” sophomore Emma Tiffany said..

But then it did get into the United States. And then Kansas. 

“The moment it first appeared (in the United States), I’m sure everyone knew it was going to get out of hand,” sophomore Eleanor Harrison said.

But few expected to grow like this.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 21 million people in the U.S. alone have been infected with Covid-19, and 86.2 million globally. There have been 1.87 million deaths worldwide, with 356,000 of these American lives. More than 4,000 people died of Covid on Jan. 7 in the U.S.

Many people have not been able to see each other face to face for months. Elderly parents are separated from their children and grandchildren. Friends are mostly only able to FaceTime one another. You can no longer give a hug to your grandmother without fear of her getting sick.

“I have to work and go to school with a mask and I’m not allowed to see my grandma and aunt until (Covid-19) goes away because they are high risk,” Tiffany said.

There is that small light at the end of the tunnel with the new vaccines being released, but they are being distributed at an alarmingly slow rate. 

Federal officials had set to give out at least 20 million people their first shot of the vaccine by the end of December. But one week into January, and only 4.8 million people have received theirs.

Now that 2020 is over, though, many people believe that life will return to norm later this year.