Looking back on a year of COVID

It’s been more than a year since the pandemic started and so much is still unknown about the Coronavirus.

Evening.

Thanks for joining us for 41nbc news at 6.

I'm tucker sargent.

Our top story tonight at 6: we've been dealing with the covid 19 pandemic since last march.

And it has felt as if... the world as we knew it might never be the same.

41nbc's ariel schiller spoke with health experts who reflected on the last year.

((reporter)) it's been more than a year since the pandemic started and so much is still unknown about the coronavirus.

One thing that is certain though is pandemic restrictions aren't going anywhere until further notice.

Life changed seemingly overnight last march.

Schools moved to online learning.

Restaurants moved to strictly takeout.

Even businesses found a way to adapt with online shopping and curbside pickup.

Masks weren't even a recommendation from the cdc until april of last year.

While some people hoped the pandemic would be over in a short period of time, michael hokanson public information officer with north central health district says he expected this to go on for longer.

"i was already preparing myself for our response to be part of the long haul and i think a lot of us here in public health were already thinking that hey this is probably something that's going to be our longest response we've ever worked and it's pretty much exactly that."

Pharmaceutical companies developed a vaccine for covid in record time.

Now there's a total of three different vaccines people can get.

Hokanson says even though the vaccine is being distributed it doesn't mean life can return back to normal.

I don't think we're ever going to be back to normal normal but we'll kind of return to some semblance of what life was like before covid-19.

Of course i believe some public health practices will still be in place for some time.

Healthcare workers and hospitals at times were pushed to their limits in the last year.

Dr. patrice walker, chief medical officer with atrium health navicent says the first year of the pandemic was more reacting to things that were happening because it was the first time they had ever dealt with something like this.

She says the second year will be different.

"we've learned enough that we can be proactive and that a lot of things that we've had to people who are currently eligible for the vaccine in addition to the phase 1-a-plus group are educators,