{"id":603,"date":"2021-03-12T01:56:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T01:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/plutchaknews.com\/newsroom\/?p=603"},"modified":"2021-03-12T12:42:37","modified_gmt":"2021-03-12T12:42:37","slug":"the-pandemic-one-year-ago-in-photographs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/plutchaknews.com\/newsroom\/2021\/03\/12\/the-pandemic-one-year-ago-in-photographs\/","title":{"rendered":"The pandemic: Photographs from one year ago"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The pandemic that stalked us for weeks finally dropped like a bomb a year ago today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a day earlier, the World Health Organization had declared the coronavirus a global pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of this day a year ago, the WIAA would call off the remainder of the state girls basketball championships, the most visible symbol that the health crisis was serious and wasn’t about to go away soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would also be one of the last days the staff met together in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just before the afternoon news meeting on Friday, March 13, 2020. This would be the last full staff meeting before we split up, with many of us working from home or remotely. Dan Plutchak\/photo.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

(MORE: A coronavirus timeline)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following Monday, the newsroom at WKOW-TV, where I worked until retiring earlier this year, would be much quieter while many of the staff began working remotely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By then, the big whiteboard in the newsroom with the latest stats from March 16 showed 47 people had been diagnosed in Wisconsin with what was now named COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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March 16, 2020. Dan Plutchak\/photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That week, Gov. Tony Evers would order bars and restaurants to close and gatherings of 10 or more people were banned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Catholic masses in the Madison diocese were suspended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An early Zoom meeting. Dan Plutchak\/photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first two deaths in the state would be reported by Gov. Tony Evers<\/a> on March 19. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, a year later, 6,524 people have died because<\/a> of COVID-19, and more than 3.2 million people have tested positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Schools
Schools closed, and many students began a year of virtual learning. Dan Plutchak\/photo.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n