Remembering the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in San Diego, five years later
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A medical worker collects a sample from a Rady Children's Hospital staff member outside the hospital in April 2020. Photo: Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images
It's been five years since Tom Hanks announced he had COVID-19, the NBA suspended its season and it became unavoidably clear the novel coronavirus would seriously disrupt American life.
Why it matters: The virus killed more than 4,000 county residents in its first year and more than 2,000 in its second year. Its effects continue to reverberate in daily life.
Flashback: San Diego logged its first local COVID case on March 9 — a month after two flights from Wuhan, China, were directed to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, where a quarantine zone had been set up — but it was March 11 that changed everything.
- One day later, on March 12, Gov. Gavin Newsom banned gatherings of more than 250 people and began readying state and local governments to commandeer hotels for treatment, building on his March 4 state of emergency.
- On March 13, San Diego County issued a public health order that would be changed and updated repeatedly in the months to come. San Diego Unified schools shut down that day, and within a week bars were closed and restaurants could serve only takeout.
- Six days later, Newsom issued a stay-at-home order, limiting all but essential travel.
State of (no) play: On March 12, the NCAA canceled its men's and women's basketball championships, ending San Diego State men's team's best regular season in program history.
- The Aztecs finished the season 30-2, a projected No. 1 seed in the unplayed tournament, after winning their first 26 games of the season.
COVID-19 took its first life in the county on March 22, a 76-year-old business owner who lived in the South Bay.
- In all, 6,577 county residents died, as of October 2024, according to the county's official tally, with the largest share coming in late 2020 and early 2021.
State Sen. Steve Padilla, then a Chula Vista councilman, became the state's first elected official to contract the virus, and he was eventually hospitalized and put on a ventilator.
Between the lines: On March 22, San Diego closed beaches, public parks and trails, an early restriction that lasted until April 27 when the county let cities reopen outdoor areas with restrictions.
- Playground-goers weren't so lucky; yellow tape wrapped slides and swings until late September.
Zoom in: On April 1, the empty San Diego Convention Center became a temporary homeless shelter as part of the region's public health response. That lasted nearly a year, with 4,000 people residing there, of whom 1,200 were connected to long-term housing.