TAMPA, Fla. — March 1, 2022, marks two years since Florida state health leaders announced the first two COVID-19 cases were found in the Sunshine State.
One of them was a woman in Hillsborough County who had traveled to Italy. The other was a man in Manatee County with no travel history.
The next day, March 2, 2020, the Florida Department of Health asked people not to travel to a growing number of counties — especially with spring break right around the corner.
Here's a glance back at March 2020 as the state and nation braced for the impact of COVID-19:
- March 5, 2020: Florida recorded its first two official coronavirus deaths, one in Santa Rosa and the other in Lee County.
- March 8, 2020: The Regal Princess cruise ship was ordered to remain offshore of South Florida with 21 people on board with the virus.
- March 8, 2020: The essential supply hoarding and panic buying was getting so bad, that stores like Publix started limiting the items customers could buy. The next few days Governor DeSantis declared a state of emergency to get extra funding and resources, limits were put on nursing home visits, and state universities were told they'd be going to virtual learning after spring break.
- March 13, 2020: All public-school students were told to take an extra week off after their spring break, which we now know turned into the rest of the year being virtual.
- March 15, 2020: Walt Disney World and Universal Studios closed their doors.
- March 17, 2020: The Florida Department of Health confirmed 216 total COVID-19 cases and seven total deaths. The governor then orders bars and nightclubs to shut down.
- March 23, 2020: Travel restrictions were put in place for anyone coming to Florida from the northeast coast. It meant 14-days of quarantine.
At this point Florida cases really jumped, totaling 1,227. - March 24, 2020: Pinellas County reported its first COVID-19 related death
- March 26, 2020: Hillsborough and Pinellas counties had issued orders telling people to stay home.
- April 1, 2020: One month after the first cases were confirmed, the whole state joined in the lockdown with an order from Governor DeSantis. There were now 7,773 confirmed cases in the state and 101 deaths.
Two years later, we're still in a pandemic. According to the Florida Department of Health, 5,800,561 people have tested positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. And, 69,790 people have died after testing positive for the virus.
In the U.S., a total of 78,759,083 people have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, CDC data shows. And, a total of 945,688 people across the country have died after testing positive.
We've seen two variants of COVID-19 — delta and omicron — sweep across the country, fueling waves of case surge.
In September 2020, Gov. Ron DeSantis brought the state into "Phase 3" of reopening. Since then, no other statewide COVID-19 restrictions have been issued.
In fact, Florida later passed a law that gives DeSantis the authority to invalidate orders that "unnecessarily restrict individual rights or liberties," such as mask and vaccine mandates.