CORONAVIRUS

How pandemic took world by storm

Dailey Jackson • Managing Editor

Welcome to your first day of distance learning,” read students from countries across the globe. Suddenly, students switched on computer monitors, unplugged iPads from chargers and replaced desks with pillows and couch cushions.

Coronavirus disease 2019, coined COVID-19 by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a respiratory illness that was first identified during an investigation from a viral outbreak in Wuhan, China, according to the Center for Disease Control. Primarily affecting the respiratory system, COVID-19 symptoms range from a runny nose to a sore throat in mild cases. For more serious cases, fever, dry cough and tiredness can lead to pneumonia in both lungs, organ failure and, in about seven percent of cases, death.

Though not confirmed, the first case of corona, called ‘patient zero,’ traces back to a resident of Hubei, China, on Nov. 17, according to the Chinese government’s medical records. Since then, scientists and doctors alike began to track the disease as it navigated its way through the first major epicenter: the central China city of Wuhan. By Dec. 31, the Chinese government alerted the WHO of the outbreak, and in the weeks following, countless other countries reported their first cases. By Jan. 21, the US found its first case in Washington state after a man returned home from visiting Wuhan. A little over a month later, on Feb. 29, the first US death was reported in the same state. On Mar. 11, the WHO announced that COVID-19 would be considered a pandemic, which means that the disease has reached national levels of severity. As of the beginning of April, the confirmed number of cases worldwide surpassed one million, and nearly every country around the world has taken measures to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Once this pandemic reached the US, many universities and high schools began to consider the option of temporarily closing to allow for deep cleaning procedures. As the disease progressed further, the permanence of these closures became more apparent, causing the Florida Department of Education to release an official statement of closure for middle and high schools statewide on Mar. 17. Two weeks later, on Mar. 31, this closure was extended to May 1 throughout the state, and finally, on Apr. 18, Governor DeSantis announced that all Florida schools will remain closed through the end of the school year.

After Bishop Felipe de Jesús Estévez, the bishop of the Diocese of Saint Augustine, released additional statements of closure, Bishop Kenny followed the guidelines adopted by Duval County Public Schools. The school temporarily cancelled all events and initiated the plan of “distance learning.” This concept allows students to use online resources to learn at home rather than physically going to school.

These closures had effects internationally, reshaping the way teenagers across the world live and work, but on a smaller scale, this disease has impacted the class of 2020 in different ways than other grades in high school. From prom to grad bash, schools like Bishop Kenny cancelled once in a lifetime events

indefinitely because of the effects of COVID-19. Though disheartening, schools and communities alike are hoping to come up with solutions and alternatives to the events missed and are looking to students to be patient and optimistic for the future.

Academic advisor and school guidance counselor Scott Sberna sympathizes with the senior class as they finish the end of their year alone.

“I would label the class of 2020 as the toughest, most resilient class in as long as I can remember,” Sberna said. “Your class is going to be prepared more than any other class for everything that is going to come your way in life.”

Sberna is eager to see this international issue resolved as soon as possible but hopes that the senior class will remain resilient through it all.

“Now, the class of 2020 will always be remembered as the ones that didn’t get to do the traditional things, but it’s a sacrifice you have to do for society as a whole.” Sberna said. “You can’t just give up.”