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'Continue to fight' : Mayor Curry marks anniversary of COVID-19 pandemic

"We must only push on a bit further, and I urge everyone to continue to fight to end this pandemic once and for all."

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Editor's Note: Video above is from a story dated March 13, 2020 about Mayor Lenny Curry's response to Jacksonville first COVID-19 case. Mayor Curry's video is embedded below.

After one year, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have touched every part of American lives.

Families have been unable to touch or even see each other, while masks covered familiar faces. People who had never been unemployed in their lives struggled to feed and house their families, while isolation took its toll on many others.

Nearly 30 million people have contracted the virus and more than 500,000 people have died in the United States alone. In Duval County, more than 90,000 people contracted the virus with more than 1,200 deaths.

As the statistics continue to change, this week was a sobering reminder that behind the numbers were scores of people whose lives have forever been changed.

On Saturday, one year after Mayor Lenny Curry issued his initial Emergency Executive Proclamation that declared a state of emergency in Duval County, Curry released a video putting the past year in prospective.

"You can tell a lot about people by how they respond to hardship. These are defining moments for people and communities," Mayor Curry said. "And as the citizens of Jacksonville have demonstrated time and time again since our founding in 1822, we are [a] strong, compassionate, bold and resilient people."

Mayor Curry spent time in the video describing the city's immediate response to the virus, and the city's economic recovery after the initial shutdown.

Curry said there is still much left to be accomplished, but acknowledged the people in Jacksonville are leading the charge in the road to recovery. 

"We can see the light at the end of the tunnel," Curry said. "We must only push on a bit further, and I urge everyone to continue to fight to end this pandemic once and for all."

Curry also thanked all frontline workers, including healthcare workers, first responders and city employees, for their work during the pandemic.

You can watch the full video below.

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