Do you remember the first week of March last year? If you’re like me, maybe you remember it as the last week before the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact our lives here in Wisconsin. We’re now approaching one full year of living through the COVID-19 pandemic — looking back on the past 12 months reminds us of how much we’ve been through and can provide us with encouragement to continue taking the precautions that help keep us healthy. 

In the first few weeks of the pandemic there were many unknowns — orders came from the state of Wisconsin to shut down to keep us safe and healthy. Early on it seemed that this change in our way of life would only be temporary. On March 12th, 2020 Governor Tony Evers declared a Public Health Emergency in response to the coronavirus, then on March 13th schools were closed statewide, and on March 24 the Safer at Home order went into effect. 

On March 20, 2020 Green County Public Health reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Green County. On June 14 of 2020 our department reported out the first death attributed to COVID-19, of a Green County resident. Now, almost a year later we have had over 3,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Green County. 

With the confirmation of that first case came the responsibility of contact tracing for Green County Public Health. Since then our staff have worked week days, weekends, evenings and holidays to provide people who have tested positive and their close contacts who have been exposed to COVID-19, the education and guidance they need to help prevent further spread of this virus. 

At the end of May, the Safer at Home order was overturned, and our community questioned how to safely open back up after more than a month of sheltering in place. Restaurants, shops, and other businesses began to reopen for in-person business with new safety precautions in place. 

In September, Green County Public Health began COVID-19 community testing here in Green County. Over the past 6 months our testing site has played an important role in allowing community members to access free COVID-19 testing close to home three days per week. Our testing site staff have operated rain or shine (or snow/cold).

During the fall months the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases began to steadily increase. In the beginning of October, we entered a “very high” COVID-19 disease activity level and we have remained at that level ever since.  This very level of COVID-19 spread has impacted the lives of many people who live in Green County.

Throughout the pandemic thousands of Green County residents have had to quarantine or isolate at home to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. These people have had to miss work, switch to working from home, switch to online learning, miss school programs, and alter their lives for a period of time so that they didn’t get others sick. The actions of our community members who have had to isolate or quarantine are greatly appreciated. 

It is important to remember that Green County residents, Wisconsinites and Americans have lost their lives due to COVID-19. All of us at Green County Public Health extend our sympathy to the friends and family of those individuals.

The new year brought with it a new hope — COVID-19 vaccine. In the first week of January Green County Public Health began vaccinating eligible groups and has continued to do so over the past two months. The COVID-19 vaccine is an extremely useful tool to help us move on from this pandemic, but we ultimately still have a long way to go. 

It will take some time to vaccinate everyone who wants to and can be vaccinated. The COVID-19 vaccine supply and vaccinator’s capacity to vaccinated play a large role in vaccination distribution. The network of COVID-19 vaccine providers in Green County connects often to coordinate vaccination efforts, and connect eligible community members with vaccinators. As more groups of people become eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine our Green County vaccine providers will work diligently to vaccinate our community.

We may be approaching one year of the COVID-19 pandemic here in Green County, but we are still very much in the midst of the pandemic. Right now it is critical to continue to practice preventative measures that will help slow the spread of COVID-19. Now is not a good time to stop mask wearing or physical distancing, or to gather with people from outside your household. Here in Green County we are still experiencing very high levels of disease spread — and taking appropriate actions will help keep you and others healthy. 

— Bridget Craker is the Public Health Educator for the Green County Public Health Department and can be reached at bcraker@greengountywi.org or 608-328-9509.