A little over one year ago, I started a live video on Facebook in front of the Saline County Courthouse, telling of the very beginning of Covid-19 in Arkansas.
Governor Asa Hutchinson was about to hold a press conference that afternoon to talk about the first known cases in the state. It was in the schools in Saline County.
The Governor announced that all Saline County schools would be dismissed beginning Friday, March 12, 2020. Spring Break was coming the next week and the Governor said class would resume on March 30th – one week after Spring Break.
That plan changed. Drastically.
None of us could know the totality of what was about to transpire, but as I stood on the sidewalk on that eerily overcast and windy Thursday afternoon, you can see at the end of the video, I took a hard gulp to hold back a voice crack. More story follows below this video:
More schools made their own decisions to close. Precautions weren’t taken. Cases rose. Proms were cancelled. Graduations were postponed and changed to outdoor ceremonies.
Teacher parades became popular. They missed their classes, so they got in their individual cars and drove through the neighborhoods just to wave to their students from a distance.
Before long, many private and government employees that could work from home did so. I personally learned that Zoom is video conference software, not an exercise class. In the past year, Zoom’s stock value has risen over 222%. Amazon, the shopping website that delivers to your home, was already high, but still rose over 80%.
Guidelines and mandates came from the Governor and Arkansas Department of Health as they assembled daily to give updates on status of the coronavirus. So many people watched the updates that regular participants like Secretary of Health, Dr. Nate Smith, became famous in the state and even the state’s Sign Language Interpreter, Eddie Schmeckenbecher, became a household name, though not quite as famous as Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Chief Medical Advisor to the President. who had been advising the nation on masking up, social distancing, washing hands, isolating and quarantining.
Then-President Donald Trump stated that the country should be “opened up and rarin’ to go” by Easter. Those plans also changed drastically. Easter celebrations were cancelled and churches went to virtual services. Restaurants changed to curbside pickup and delivery services. Big stores had socially-distanced lines out front and they limited the amount of customers inside. Still, many didn’t wear a mask and continued to meet in large groups.
Over the summer, numbers in Arkansas looked good in comparison to other states. They were good enough that the Governor allowed school to return to session, but with the option for students to learn virtually from home.
I could go on and on about all the changes over the past year. Unemployment, the vacation industry, people missing their elderly relatives, everyone finally able to get a haircut again but with a mask on…
…All the hospitalizations and deaths of loved ones.
It’s amazing how protocol has changed over the year. It’s noticeable at the very beginning of the video below, in a room crowded with reporters and Arkansas’s top leaders – and no masks in sight. Such was the norm throughout the state’s general population, even as Spring Break was in full swing. That day it was announced that there were 165 cases in the state, 44 of which were due to a nursing home outbreak.
The Governor’s press conference on March 22, 2020:
Now a year later, vaccinations have been available for over a month, and eligibility to get the shot(s) become increasingly available. Case numbers in Arkansas peaked at around 28,000 active cases. According to ArkansasCovid.com, as of March 14, 2021, the state had:
- 3,085 active cases
- 130 new cases
- 19 new deaths
- 5,474 total deaths
The state currently has a total of over 325,000 known cases since the beginning of the pandemic. Hope is in sight, but it’s not over yet.