On March 7, 2020, the first case of coronavirus (COVID-19) broke out in Connecticut and what happened next no one expected. The virus, originating in China,  creates the whole world to shut down. What started out as a problem only overseas, turned epidemic, then turned pandemic. Looking back on the beginning of the outbreak in the United States, much has changed since then.

     Soon after the first few cases broke out, Governor Ned Lamont declared a civil preparedness and public health emergency in response to the virus, ordering all schools to shut down until at least March 21. little did anyone know, this wouldn’t be over.

     In the beginning, many people were staying home as much as possible and staying safe. However, it was easy to become discouraged and bored being stuck at home. Some worked at home, some did school at home, and some had obligations that forced them to leave the house and take major precautions.

     Sophomore, Logan Aronson, says, “I left my house almost every day to take care of my horse… precautions I took were to wear a mask and clean surfaces.” 

     While Aronson was working hard to stay safe when leaving her house, others did not have to leave and were able to stay home. 

     Senior, Maci Pastir, was trying to stay positive while being stuck at home. 

     Pastir went for walks with her mom almost every day, and when she wasn’t doing that, she was watching Netflix. Although Pastir was trying to stay home as much as possible, she had a work obligation at the Sundae House. 

     Pastir says, “It is crazy how much of the norms have changed in everyday society. Six months ago I would not be concerned about people not wearing masks!”

     Since the beginning of the pandemic, a lot has changed and many have found ways to adjust. In a way, there’s been a lot of adapting to these changes in order to keep everyone safe. Now that the country is adjusted to these times, people can go back to their everyday routines. 

     Visual Arts Educator, Mrs. Plude, says she never pictured herself “teaching students both virtually and in person at the same time.” 

     Plude spent the beginning of quarantine “scrambling around trying to make up meaningful virtual lessons” for her students. She now takes precautions such as wearing a mask, constantly washing hands and changing clothes as soon as she gets home from school.

     Six months ago, the world was freaking out and didn’t know what to do, now, we have figured out a routine and precautions we can all take to keep each other safe and be able to continue our learning and going to work for their families.

     Recently, Connecticut has gone back down to Phase 2.1 because of the steady increase in cases. However, on November 9, Pfizer/BioNTech announced that they have a vaccine that is 90% affective against coronavirus. With no serious side-effects and the extremely high effectiveness, the vaccine which takes two doses to work is looking like it will be one of the first vaccines available. Pfizer is looking to finish the tests and have the vaccine available by the end of the year.