Arkansas' first covid-19 case was verified just days short of a year ago. Where are we now?
That question is harder to answer than it might appear.
Certainly, the state and nation have made considerable strides in treating and containing or preventing the virus' spread.
Three different vaccines are now available to Americans as are life-saving treatments for those who get the disease. People can and do survive even serious infections and many avoid hospitalization altogether.
That was less true in the earlier days of the pandemic, but health professionals and research scientists have learned from the mountain of cases that have packed the nation's hospitals and challenged everyone who worked endless shifts caring for victims of the disease.
For the record, March 11, 2020, was that unfortunate date when we knew the pandemic had reached Arkansas. It might have been here longer than that, but that's when the first case was verified.
The disease had for months been spreading across the world and running rampant elsewhere in the nation before the first infections were identified here.
Cumulative confirmed cases in Arkansas have since topped 322,500, with more than 5,200 deaths attributed to the disease.
The numbers change constantly, but these are what was reported on Monday by state and national health authorities.
The toll in Arkansas looks small compared to California, for example, where the number of cases is tenfold the Arkansas numbers both in cases and in deaths.
Nationwide, the number of deaths has surpassed 500,000, or close to 100 times the Arkansas total.
Another way of looking at the toll in Arkansas and throughout this country, however, is the number of cases per 100,000 residents.
Arkansas' number of total cases on Monday ranked eighth among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. California, with its much larger population, sits at 29 on the comparative list. Arkansas reported 10,684 cases per 100,000 residents while California had 8,796.
Look closely at the states in Arkansas' company -- or with worse experiences per capita -- and you'll see states that flouted the precautions everyone was urged to observe: wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance.
Those recommendations still hold in most cases, even with the encouraging news not only that vaccines are being manufactured but also that they are getting put into more and more people's arms.
Many still work from home, find themselves trying to teach home-bound schoolchildren or just avoid crowds and even direct contact with friends and family.
Remember how you were asked in the early days of the pandemic if you knew anyone with covid-19? If anyone you knew had died from it?
Now everyone knows someone who fell victim to the disease, often someone close to them, maybe several people.
The question today is often about who has or hasn't gotten vaccinated, when they're scheduled for the shots or if they'll take them.
Arkansas reported more than 661,000 have been vaccinated as of Monday, and the numbers improve day by day.
Those eligible for the shots now include Arkansans over 65 years of age as well as those who were in the first categories of front-line workers, the more elderly Arkansans and educators.
Eventually, everyone who wants the shots will get them, but the rollout has been somewhat halting.
For continuing updates on changing eligibility as well as where to register for vaccinations and tons of other related information, visit the Arkansas Department of Health website at www.healthy.arkansas.gov.
Be aware, too, that what had been state directives in the past regarding covid-19 may now be "health guidances."
Gov. Asa Hutchinson last week announced the policy change as he once again extended the state's public health emergency.
A guidance, according to the governor, is "a strong recommendation based on medical advice" whereas a mandate carries a potential penalty after due process.
All public health directives, except the mask mandate, became guidelines effective with the governor's order. Even the mask mandate will become a guideline on March 31, if certain public health goals are met, he said.
Meanwhile, the state will keep monitoring covid-19 testing results and tracking hospitalization rates. If need be, guidelines may be reinstated as mandates.
Unless or until that happens, state-set capacity limits for places like bars, restaurants, gyms and large venues are gone. The establishments may themselves limit capacity but the state government doesn't intend to do it, unless variants of the virus cause a resurgence in the state's caseload and make such controls necessary again.
Those variants and what we don't yet know about them are part of the reason we can't really know exactly where we are now with regard to the coronavirus.
Sadly, the virus in one form or another might yet be here longer than anyone can predict.
And that makes it nigh onto impossible to know how soon we can safely return to the life we all knew before the pandemic.
The best advice remains: Listen to the scientists as we all individually and collectively ease toward a new normal.