Today Marks One Year Anniversary of First COVID Case, also First Day Johnson & Johnson Starts Shipping Vaccines

By Yehudit Garmaise

   One year ago today, on March 1, 2020, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that a healthcare worker, a woman in her 30s who lived in Manhattan and who had returned the previous week from travelling to Iran, tested positive for the COVID-19.

   At the time, the governor had said that the case was “no cause for surprise,” and officials "stressed that this is not a cause for undue concern.”

   However, on March 14, 2020, the first COVID-19 death was reported in New York. Less than a week later, New York City was declared the epicenter of the pandemic, when it accounted for 5% of the world’s confirmed cases.

   On March 22, the New York times reported that “more than 15,000 people in New York State have tested positive, with the vast majority in the New York City region.

   “That is about half of the cases in the United States.” 

   A year later, more than 1.6 million New Yorkers have contracted the virus, and more than 38,400 have died, according to the state's Health Department.

    But today’s anniversary also coincides with the day that the third FDA-approved COVID vaccine began shipping to states across the country.

   Tomorrow, nearly 4 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is easier to administer and requires only one dose, are expected to be delivered to states across the country. By the end of March, Johnson & Johnson will deliver approximately 16 million more doses and 100 million vaccines by the end of June.

   President Joe Biden recently said on CNN, “By the end of July we will have 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate every single American.”

   As Johnson & Johnson adds vaccines to the those made by Pfizer and Moderna, some Americans wonder which vaccine is best, however, the White House has encouraged Americans to take the first vaccine that is available to them, regardless of its manufacturer.