Today, March 17th, marks a year since our first case of COVID-19 in our county. Since the beginning of this pandemic our county has had 5,085 cases, 300 hospitalizations, and 117 deaths. Community events had to be cancelled. Schools had to move online. Supplies were often hard to find at grocery stores. Many in our community had to work from home. Since the beginning, this virus has taken so much from our community. Yet, the one thing this virus could not take from our community is our strive to help one another. Our community saw the challenges of this virus and faced these challenges head on. When the virus made it difficult for those at risk to get groceries, members of our community stepped up to help deliver groceries. When our nursing homes and hospitals began to be overwhelmed, our community’s medical staff worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of our community. When supplies got low at nursing homes, our health department delivered them 19,390 masks (surgical and N95), 1,895 gowns, 30,100 gloves, and 3,818 face shields. When masks were determined to be one of the main ways of stopping this virus, members of our community donated over 1,000 masks to give to the public. When vaccines were finally made available on December 23, our community pulled together to administer an unprecedented 9,456 number of vaccines, not wasting any doses. So yes, this past year has been one of the most difficult in recent memory. Yet, through this past year our community has shown why we at the Darke County General Health District are proud to be serving Darke County. So, thank you all for your part in keeping our community safe and healthy!
