One year. 52 weeks. 365 days.

529,000 deaths nationally. 29.2 million infected. A hurting economy.

95, 721, 290 vaccine doses administered. A new relief bill passed. A healing nation.

It’s been one year since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed locally. It’s been one year since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It’s been one year since global stocks plunged.

And it’s been one year since Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “I can say we will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are right now. How much worse we’ll get will depend on our ability to do two things: to contain the influx of people who are infected coming from the outside, and the ability to contain and mitigate within our own country.”

In the span of a year, COVID-19 cases in Monroe County went from one to 52,751. Over a thousand people in the county have died from the virus.

Today, cases are continuing to decline. There’s hope, and one might possibly hope that the worst is behind us. Vaccines are being distributed, the number of people hospitalized is declining, and things are starting to look up.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is loosening up on some COVID guidelines due to the consistently low numbers reported in New York and the increase of vaccinations administered. He announced Thursday that domestic travelers would no longer have to quarantine upon arrival in New York State starting April 1.

President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, sending a third round of stimulus checks and more aid to the entire country.

In one year we’ve learned resilience. We’ve learned sacrifice. We’ve learned to expect the unexpected.

In one year we’ve learned that nothing is impossible.