“We,” the people of the state of Washington and, indeed, everyone in the United States, are approaching the anniversary of the diagnosis of the first coronavirus case in the U.S. Last Feb. 29 Gov. Jay Inslee, like governors across the country, first issued a state of emergency. On March 25 he told us to stay home to stay healthy and restricted people’s movements and economic activity in an effort to slow the spread of the virus and maintain the community public health necessary for reopening the economy.

The governor’s orders have slowed the spread of an otherwise runaway pandemic. But Inslee is neither a magician nor a miracle worker. Americans love to think for themselves and are notoriously independent. Too many of them – us – continue to gather, travel and not wear masks. Gov. Inslee shut the state down when there were 3,071 cases statewide and 179 people here died. In the last 11 months, Skagit County has recorded 3,981 cases of COVID-19 and 53 deaths. Over 4,000 people in Skagit County will have tested positive by the end of this week.

Our family, neighbors and friends insisted on traveling during the holiday season. The result: 2,716 people were infected in the last 101 days. That is twice the total of March through October.

When the people of Washington could not follow restrictive public health guidelines to keep us apart, the governor changed the plan’s metrics and grouped counties in regions to make obtaining public health metrics easier.

That has worked for the south Puget Sound regions, allowing King and Snohomish counties into a new Phase 2 that includes restaurant seating at 25% capacity and similar limited capacity at gyms, museums and theaters.

County COVID-19 cases totaled 768 in January but hospitalizations continue to increase, as do deaths. Ten people died in January, and 26, half of all COVID-19 related deaths in Skagit County, have been since December 1.

The coronavirus is not done with us, as much as we want to be done with it.

Careful, patient and therefore small and relatively subdued activity continue to be the necessary watchword this year. Get together, but only outside, unless it is with people in your bubble. Any events we attend will have us in every other row and several seats apart, at best.

We are only finishing the first year of responding to the pandemic. At the end of 2021 we might be chasing the last vestiges of the coronavirus out of Skagit County and the state. But we might not be. Mask wearing may be the norm for years to come.

The only way to be done with it is to love ourselves, our families, neighbors and community so much that we continue to embrace and endure, yes, wearing masks, staying distant and not gathering.