2 Years of COVID In GA: How Has Your Life Changed?

GEORGIA — Two years of the coronavirus pandemic have brought face mask debates, school upheaval, businesses and workers struggling to survive, and 29,726 deaths in Georgia alone as of Monday. The second COVID-19 anniversary is nearly here.

Patch wants to know how our readers have coped during the pandemic. What have you mourned or celebrated, what financial impacts did you face, what kept you going?

We've created a survey asking how the pandemic has affected you, click here to fill out the survey. If you are willing to talk to an editor, you can share your contact information with Patch; it will be kept confidential.

The survey is not meant to be a scientific poll, with random sampling and margins of error, but is meant only to gauge the sentiments of our Georgia readers in an informal way.

The World Health Organization declared coronavirus a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

March 2, 2020, is when state officials confirmed the first cases of the respiratory virus had sickened Virginia residents. Within days, life was turned upside down as events were canceled, businesses shuttered — some for months, some forever — schools tried to teach students via video, and face masks and toilet paper were in short supply.

By early 2021 vaccines were rolling out across the country, and Georgians began to gather again at ballgames, restaurants and school events. Summer saw travel skyrocket as families got out of the house, and then the delta variant of the coronavirus sent cases, and hospitalizations, soaring again.

That was followed over the holidays by a surge tied to the omicron variant, with cases finally falling.

On Feb. 28, Georgia registered 1,793 COVID-1o cases; 778 antigen positive tests, and a 3.6 percent positivity of molecular and PCR tests, according to the state's COVID dashboard. The state has seen 97 deaths in the last 24 hours.

On Monday, the state had 229 hospitalizations.

The state has recorded a total of 29,726 deaths during the pandemic.

To date, the Peach State has seen 1,911,333 COVID cases and a total of 107,654 hospitalizations in total.

In a sign that the country is shifting to living with the virus, the Biden administration loosened federal COVID-19 mask guidance Friday as infection rates return to pre-omicron variant levels around the country.

Related: CDC Updates COVID Mask Guidelines: What It Means In Georgia

The change means most Americans live in areas where federal guidelines say they're not required to wear masks indoors.

Several suburban Atlanta school systems ordered face masks again after the holidays as omicron cases surged in the state. But, many school districts that previously required students to wear masks in class have relaxed those mandates.

On Friday, Atlanta's indoor mask mandate was lifted by Mayor Andre Dickens, who announced that the city was ending a number of COVID-19 restrictions — primary among them the mask mandate — that had been in place since the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

"Advances in life-saving vaccines, downward trends in cases and — most importantly — the vigilance and resilience of the Atlanta community have all brought us to this new space of hope," Dickens said in the announcement. "As we continue to rely on data and science, Atlanta remains forever grateful for our public health professionals, our healthcare workers and our frontline workers who continue to give their all so that we may begin this optimistic path toward our new normal."

The mayor's office also announced that the eviction moratorium would remain in place for residents funded through city agencies.

This article originally appeared on the Atlanta Patch