PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The worldwide coronavirus pandemic reached Pennsylvania on March 6, 2020, when the first two confirmed cases of COVID-19 were recorded, in Bucks and Wayne counties, and Gov. Tom Wolf signed a disaster declaration.
On Friday, March 13, President Donald Trump issued a national emergency, and Wolf ordered schools closed across the state for what was expected to be at least two weeks.
By the following Monday, the state was approaching 100 confirmed cases. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney closed nonessential businesses and city government.
"It was obviously a terrible time."
As the virus spread and access to testing improved, the number of confirmed cases took off like a rocket. The March 2020 lockdown stretched through the end of the school year and bled into a year of remote education, Zoom meetings, social distancing and vaccine breakthroughs.
It was also a time of isolation and social unrest.
"For two years we hibernated in our house."
"I think about staying inside more, watching a lot more TV shows."
"Ordering a lot more takeout instead of dining out."
"Everybody going to get toilet paper and everybody going to get groceries and everybody in a panic."
Calls for social change emerged or grew stronger.
"The movements, like Black Lives Matter."
"Yeah, it was just like a lot of division. That's my main memory."
The World Health Organization ended its global health emergency designation last year — and for the most part, people have returned to what they describe as a new normal. It might be hard to believe it all began four years ago.
"All that feels like a blur. It was so fast."
For others, it felt like life was put on pause during the lockdown.
"Time. It's like it no longer exists. Like I was in my 20s and my 30s and I don't even know my age."
Today there are no mask mandates or COVID-inspired shut downs — but some pandemic-era habits have remained.
"Well, handwashing constantly, you know — keeping hand sanitizer in your bag and this and that."
"Wearing a mask, you know, if I need to — if I feel like I'm in a really close personal space. Washing my hands more, being more conscious of the things that I touched and, you know, coming in from inside — I definitely did a lot more than I used to."
Some don't anticipate ever fully returning to pre-pandemic life.
"I'm a therapist, and I used to have in-person sessions. Now I'm an online therapist, and I'm never going into the office again."
