Reflecting on COVID-19 impact after one year of the pandemic

March marks one year since the novel coronavirus pandemic started making its way into Indiana.

Since then, thousands have caught the virus, and thousands have lost their lives.

Since the novel coronavirus pandemic started making its way into indiana.

Since then, thousands have caught the virus.

And thousands have lost their lives.

But with continued efforts towards vaccination, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

News 18's anna darling talked with local health leaders to learn more about the impact of this past year, anna?

Meredith, tomorrow, march 16th, marks one year since indiana had it's very first covid-19 death.

It's been a year that has impacted everyone.

And everyone has sacrificed in some capacity at the hands of the virus.

And while things are starting to look better right now with the vaccine roll out, it's important to look back at the lessons we've learned during this pandemic.

More than half a million positive covid 19 cases in indiana.

"there's been tremendous suffering, we've had too many people die" more than 12- thousand hoosiers gone in one year.

"governor holcomb has a message for hoosiers.

We are at war with covid and we will win that war" the war hit the heart of the pablo family in lafayette.

"covid touched everybody" oleen and joe pablo and three of their children were diagnosed with covid.

For joleen and her kids, they had mild symptoms. but it hit joe in the hardest way.

"he was diagnosed on a friday and he was gone on monday."

Joe pablo died on january 11th, 2021.

Thousands of families can relate to the loss of the pablo family.

And as we turn the corner on one year of the pandemic, local health leaders are reflecting.

"it felt like the switch flipped pretty quickly from maybe this won't happen here to oh man, we have to prepare for this and we have to prepare for the worst" "this is a brand new virus, a brand new disease.

We suspected that would indeed have cases of covid-19 here.

We didn't know at the time to what extent" as of monday, tippecanoe county has had 20-thousand 448 diagnosed cases and 207 deaths in the past year.

The county health department had to make some difficult decisions, including putting restrictions on bars and restaurants.

We heard dr. jeremy adler preach the importance of mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing at weekly or bi weekly press conferences.

"everyone has done such a great job here.

If it wasn't for all the efforts of everybody, our situation would have been a lot worse" dr. james bien with iu health arnett says collaboration has been key.

"elected officials, health department, both hospital systems and purdue.

I know that that has helped" dr. bien says he did not think we would have three vaccines available to people with higher than 80% efficacy one year later.

"i thought we would be locked into a long struggle over the period of several years.

Now to have three vaccines that are so effective, i think is making all the difference for us."

Dr. adler and dr. bien agreed that the takeaways from this pandemic are the importance of collaboration, transparency, flexibility and perseverance.

For joleen pablo and her family, it's remaining strong in their faith and their love for each other.

"we had him cremated so he's home with us too and we always have his candle lit.

It's day by day and support from your family and friends is the best thing" both doctor adler and doctor bien emphasized that this pandemic is a marathon, not a sprint and we are still in the race.

Especially as new variants make their way to the u-s.

They are encouraging people to take advantage of getting whichever vaccine they can as soon as it's available to them.

And to continue our other covid safety measures like mask wearing and social distancing.

Anna darling news 18 indiana has reported another 421