On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, the first in over a century. The international agency urged everyone around the globe to work together to alter the course of the virus, which had already touched 114 nations and ended more than 4,000 lives.

March 2020 was a blur. Coronavirus cases led to lockdowns, exacerbating economic disparities. By the end of the month, thousands had died.

Cleric women wearing protective clothing and “chador,” a head-to-toe garment, arrive a cemetery to prepare the body of a victim who died from the new coronavirus for a funeral, in the city of Ghaemshahr, in north of Iran, on April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Before the pandemic claimed the lives of more than 1,700 Knox County residents, it began with a trickle of announcements.