ON THIS DAY in 2020, Ireland lost its very first soul to Covid-19.
The patient, who passed away in hospital with respiratory problems, hasn't been publicly named, but it's understood that they were elderly.
Since that awful day, Ireland, and indeed the world, has suffered through the devastating vice-grip of one of the deadliest outbreaks of disease the human race has ever seen.
Responding to news of the anniversary of Ireland's first Covid fatality, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said: "I would like to extend my condolences to the family and friends of this patient.
"I urge the media and the public to respect their privacy at this difficult time.
"We continue our efforts to interrupt the transmission of this virus. I will take all of us, collectively, to success."
Leo Varadkar addresses the nation while in Washington DC, ordering the country into lockdown for the first timeOn this day last year, just 43 people in the country had been diagnosed with Covid-19, 11 days after the very first case had been identified here.
Back then we were constricted by confusion, fear, and for far too many of us in the weeks and months that followed, grief.
On March 12, 2020, another patient would die of Covid, followed by another on March 13, and two more on March 14, and Ireland was quickly plunged into lockdown.
And while the public health measures put in place undoubtedly saved countless people's lives from being lost, before the month was over, 71 more souls had been claimed by the virus.
By the end of the following month, more than 1,200 people had died, and over 20,000 people had been infected.
Ireland's current Covid-19 death count stands at 4,499. The unprecedented loss of life is and will forever represent the heartbreaking reality of such a brutal and merciless virus, but the tireless efforts and sacrifices made by communities, families and workers across the country shouldn't be forgotten in the face of despair.
It's been anything but a straightforward path, but with vaccines being distributed around the country as well as into the arms of the waiting world, an end is finally in sight.
And even as we sit here, 12 months on from the beginning of possibly the most painful period in collective human existence since the '40s, we must be thankful for everything we still have, everything that's still to come, and everything that will be returned to us once the virus is defeated once and for all.
