MEMPHIS, Tenn. — "It was brand new, it was scary, we didn't quite know what was going on," David Sweat with the Shelby County Health Department said.
That fear, felt throughout Shelby County one year ago Monday, when health experts confirmed Shelby County's first case of COVID-19.
"We had never been confronted with an infectious disease that was spreading this rapidly," Sweat said.
We later found out the person who was Shelby County's first COVID-19 case: Marilyn Davis, who also works at Baptist Memphis Hopsital as a cardiac monitor technician.
She spent more than a week as a patient in her own workplace.
"It's been a long journey, it's been a game changer," Davis told Local 24 News Monday. "It's a blessing to be here to be able to even talk about. I feel blessed to be able to talk about how I got to this day."
The once in a lifetime pandemic arriving locally forced the Shelby County Health Department and partners to immediately set up widespread testing and contact tracing and avoid the mass casualties in other parts of the nation and world at the time.
"We were concerned about the emergency departments and the hospitals and the intensive care beds being overwhelmed," Sweat said.
Hospital systems were significantly strained during COVID-19 surges in the summer and around the holidays but the situation never became dire enough to open an alternate care facility on standby.
"I think what we've learned is we are resilient, I think we have learned we are flexible," Sweat said.
Now - one year after the first COVID-19 case - vaccinations are nearly three months underway. To date, more than 57,000 people in Shelby County are fully vaccinated, including some Monday afternoon.
"We've learned a lot this past year and learned a lot of how to handle things," Steve Spakes said.
"I feel like we are probably on the downhill side," Nick Pesce said.
With more shot in arms, local health experts also hope the worst of the pandemic is behind us locally, assuming mask wearing remains a priority and more contagious COVID-19 variants are contained.
"Either of those things could generate a new wave, a new surge, that's why we continue to ask for people to be patient," Sweat said.
Local health experts last week set a goal of 700,000 vaccine doses administered by August 1st. As of Monday, nearly 180,000 total doses were put into arms to date.