COVID-19 in New Hanover County: One year later

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — On Thursday, President Joe Biden marked one year of the COVID-19 pandemic nationwide. WWAY decided to take a look at one year of COVID-19 locally.

“This has been a tough journey for all of us,” said Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo. “Everybody that has had to live through this, I don’t think we’ll ever forget it.”

One year ago, Irish Pubs across the Wilmington area were gearing up for their biggest day of the year, unaware of what was about to happen.

“St. Patty’s Day is always our primary celebration out here at the Harp and we have usually a hundred people or more, and we have people that come from the parade and things like that,” said general manager of The Harp, Doc Thomas. “And we were shut down basically the day before it all came down.”

Restaurants, bars, hotels, and any other businesses deemed ‘nonessential’ were shut down. Schools went virtual, and gatherings were banned.

At the local level, the City of Wilmington declared a state of emergency.

“I think we took some pretty drastic measures at the state, as well as the local levels, to make certain that we didn’t overwhelm the hospital system,” Mayor Saffo said.

One year later, New Hanover County has seen lower numbers than some other areas. Out of nearly 17,000 cases, 154 people died from the virus.

“I give a lot of credit to Governor Cooper,” Saffo said. “He took a lot of criticism for the actions that he took, but I believe that they were the right actions.”

Now, things are beginning to look up. More and more students are getting back into the classroom, and all businesses are allowed to reopen as long as they follow distancing and capacity limits.

The Harp’s St. Patrick’s Day plans adjusting to the times.

“We’re going to make it a safe and happy St. Patrick’s Day,” Thomas said. “We’re going to have all the social distancing things in place, as well as hand sanitizing stations and things like that.”

Mayor Saffo thanks citizens for being vigilant, and looks forward to some more normalcy as the year goes on.

“We’ve learned a lot because of this pandemic,” Saffo said. “We hope that we can get back to a much more normal way of life hopefully the early part of this summer as more and more people get vaccinated.”

Click here for more information on the latest restrictions statewide.