Montgomery County—and the world—shut down for quite some time, and now that it has been two years since the COVID-19 pandemic burst into existence, local officials reflect on the changes as the region comes back to life, writes Brian X. McCrone for NBC10.

On March 11, 20202, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.

Reflecting on the last two years, Chairwoman of the Montgomery County commissioners, Dr. Val Arkoosh was one of the first official people that residents saw on a daily basis with updates on the virus and how the County was reacting. Arkoosh made the decision to put Montgomery County into lockdown.

The current reported numbers are up to 79 million cases confirmed in the United States and many epidemiologists think there may be more unconfirmed cases.

Total Worldwide Cases: 447,554,858 (6,037,542 deaths)

Total Cases in the US: 79,640,658 (969,805 deaths)

Medical experts are struggling with sifting through the traits of COVID-19 variants, and masking in schools turned into hundreds of legal battles across Pennsylvania.

This also led many companies to transition to work from home during lockdown, and now that that “indirectly led” to what economists now call “The Great Resignation.”

The work-life balance is shook, but many Montco residents have held onto hope during this troubling time.

Arkoosh is ready to move forward and hopes to solve some of the challenges experienced during the pandemic.

“I want to improve the public health infrastructure. We need new IT systems and improvements to modernize our public health departments,” Arkoosh said. “It’s nothing short of a miracle how effective these vaccines have been. It has allowed us to move away from the prevention of transmission to the prevention of serious infection. We’ve been able to shift the goals and the consequence of that is people can take the masks off. Now, our focus is, ‘Let’s prevent serious infections.’ That’s how we move forward.”

Read more about the pandemic in Montco and across PA from NBC10.