Sunday Marks One Year Since Louisiana’s First COVID Death
Earlier this week, Louisiana crossed the one-year mark since our first COVID-19 case. This weekend, we'll cross another grim milestone.
It feels like a lifetime ago, life before COVID. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, it was only a year ago when we embarked on the wildest journey of our lives.
A little over a year ago, when COVID-19 first began to make rumblings across the Ark-La-Tex and America in general, most of us were not worried. After all, we live through a hellacious flu season every year, as well as the occasional Ebola-type crisis every now and then. I think the majority of us simply never considered that anything like this was actually possible. That a virus could essentially change life forever, and do so within a blink of an eye.
Clearly, not enough of us watched the movie Contagion, which is quite eery watching it in hindsight.
Last March was one of the toughest months for me, personally. 75% of my income was gone in a Thanos-like snap, and I know I'm not the only one. Still, even then, most of us still viewed COVID-19 as an easy-to-spread flu, with a very small fatality rate. Then, the deaths became to come in, and I believe that was a real eye-opener for a lot of us.
This weekend will mark one year since our state's first COVID-19 death. Governor Edwards’ communications director Shauna Sanford said Sunday will be a Day of Remembrance and the Governor is calling on all Louisianans to observe a moment of silence and prayer that day in honor of the pandemic’s victims.
At the state's capital, there will be 9,828 flags representing the nearly 10,000 Louisianians who lost their life to COVID-19.