One Year Later: A Colorado COVID-19 Timeline

DENVER — On March 5, 2020, Governor Jared Polis announced that Colorado had confirmed its first two positive COVID-19 cases. Though disconcerting, the news wasn't entirely shocking; the governor's announcement came days after Washington state had already reported its first COVID-19 deaths. In many ways, the spread of the novel coronavirus—though we knew little about just how insidious the disease was at the time—seemed inevitable.

But nobody predicted we would be where we are now, exactly one year later: nearly 30 million confirmed cases in the United States, more than half a million Americans lost to the virus (about 20% of the global total), and millions trying to make ends meet after suddenly losing their jobs.

More than 400,000 Coloradans contracted COVID-19. Nearly 6,000 of them died. The impact of such a profound loss remains to be seen.

Across the country, hope ebbed and flowed over the past 365 days. Positivity rates plummeted, only to quickly return to daunting peaks. Businesses reopened, only to close their doors once again, sometimes permanently. Students returned to class, then were sent back home with laptops.

In Colorado, a different kind of hope arrived on December 14 when Governor Polis welcomed a FedEx truck full of Pfizer vaccines to the CDPHE State Lab. Later that day, 20-year UCHealth veteran Kevin Londrigan, a respiratory therapist, became the first Coloradan to receive the vaccine, and thus began a new chapter in the fight against COVID-19.

As of March 5, 2021, more Coloradans—over half a million—have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Over 70% of the state's 70 and up population has been vaccinated. 

The work is not over yet. It will be many months before Colorado and the rest of the country reach herd immunity through vaccination. Health officials have cautioned against easing restrictions, and continue to emphasize the importance of mask-wearing, hand-washing, and social distancing.

"We're back in the month of March. Sometimes it doesn't feel like we got out of last March," said Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, during a March 4 press briefing. 

Acknowledging the struggles of the past year, Hancock still delivered a sanguine message: "The light at the end of this long tunnel keeps getting brighter and brighter every day."