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On March 13, 2020, Gov. Tim Walz declared the COVID-19 pandemic a peacetime emergency. Unmasked and unaware of what was to come, Walz announced that day that cases had increased from nine to 14 from the previous day. 

That has turned into 1.9 million cases in Minnesota as counted by the health department. And the deaths of more than 17,000 Minnesotans.  

The Minnesota Now team has spent the last month going out across the state and asking listeners and readers to share their story. 

The following has been edited for length and clarity. Use the audio player above for the one-hour Minnesota Now special episode. 

Public health fear and uncertainty in the early days

A lot of people remembered exactly where they were, when they learned they weren’t going back to school or work. People were afraid of not knowing how COVID-19 spread or how sick they might get if they contracted the virus.

I was on a cruise at the time and I didn’t have any cell phone service, so I didn’t know about anything going on. It was on spring break, we got the notification, once we got the service back, that there was like this COVID-19 breakout. 

My resident assistant at the time gave me a call when I finally got service again and said that I had two days to come to college to get my stuff or else it was gonna be locked in there until they opened the school back up. So I directly went to my college and then got all my stuff out of the dorm, and then I came home.  

I am a hospitalist at Abbott Northwestern Hospital. I would come home and change my clothes and leave them in the basement for three days because, what did I know? Maybe the virus would die in those three days if it wasn’t at body temperature. We didn’t know if we’d get COVID from an avocado at the grocery store that someone else had just touched. It just was so crazy. 

Early on, there were fewer people in the hospital, because people were scared to come to the hospital, which was really awful. People were staying home and living through heart attacks and strokes. But then, of course, the COVID illness itself started to increase.

From a professional standpoint and from being chief of staff, I was challenged in a leadership role in a way I couldn’t possibly have imagined. There was no time to stop and think about how to do that. I just had to do it, and that was good. I wrote a monthly newsletter and I think every one of them just said, “Thank you.”

Unlike some people, some parts of the pandemic were actually really beneficial. I am disabled, and in particular, I have issues with executive function and getting out of the house to make it to doctor appointments. The increase and availability of telemedicine was a big benefit. Prior to that, it was really hard to make it to my doctor appointments.

I was pregnant during COVID and everything was virtual, online, limited. I couldn’t buy formula anywhere. I was forced to breastfeed because I didn’t have a car and there was no stores or shops in the area. The people in the community really looked out for each other and gave out diapers and formula. But more importantly, I was taught how to breastfeed and how to give [my son] natural remedies.

I came down with COVID. I nearly didn’t make it. I was hospitalized for a month. When I came out, Good Lord, it was the day of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. So I’m hopped up on steroids, and you can see live coverage of the Capitol under attack. Oh, I was fit to be tied. My wife just locked me in the back room. I never experienced a near death experience like that. It scared the bejesus out of the process. I was grateful to come back.

While cops, firefighters and health care professional — and many others — went to work, lots of people stayed home. Social distancing became not only a household term, but a state of being that stretched on and on. Nearly every aspect of life and culture changed in real time as people figured out how to adapt and find human connection.   

My birthday is March 13. We gathered at a brewery to celebrate my birthday. My wife planned a party. We were in close proximity to a lot of people and we had a couple friends who came, who were probably a little bit more on the ball in terms of public health, who didn’t hug. And 48 hours later, we regretted having the birthday party.

I was a music therapist for a hospice program. We would visit nursing homes, assisted living facilities and all that in person. Before we were allowed back in, we were allowed outside the windows. The residents were so starved for any kind of entertainment or interaction with the outside world, they would literally bring whoever they could get out onto the patio.

In late 2019, I decided to go to Africa to shoot a film, and the production got shut down in 2020, because of lockdown. The country that I was in, Ethiopia, got shut down and we couldn’t leave for two months. On top of that, I only had three months on my visa and my visa got declined because the place that I was supposed to renew got shut down. It took me five months to stay in a different country without my family. It was the worst experience of my life.

I had just had my first kid. My wife and I both were working and we were 100 percent remote, but our child care drastically changed and there were not a lot of places taking new enrollments. So we were home and really trying to give her some fulfillment but also trying to juggle meetings and get things done. And when I did have to go back into the office, my safety awareness climbed to levels it’s never been before. I was fearful of bringing any variant of things home because she was only one at the time.

My parents owned a restaurant and it shut down because no more business. The stuff with George Floyd happened and then there were riots. Their restaurant, KinhDo, was in Minneapolis and it got broken into. All the windows were busted, so we couldn’t really open, so they shut it down. They were done.

What I mainly remember is all the food I was eating. Me and my family couldn’t go out to eat, so we tried our best to still have our fun times by sharing meals together. Me and my friends, we couldn’t see each other either, so we’d all order from the same place and play video games together while we were eating the shared, common food. 

My friends and I started a book club. We did it over Zoom and it was really fun. We read a few books that we were reading in elementary school. We reread “Because of Winn Dixie,” and that’s definitely one of my favorite memories from COVID, despite it being such a cruddy time.

I’m a skater, so I skateboard around downtown often. You could skate in the middle of the street and it was kind of eerie. That time also made me realize how unnatural our environment really is, because it was the first time I saw a deer in downtown. I was skating from north Minneapolis into the North Loop, and there’s just a baby deer. 

But remembering that, wow, we have distracted ourselves fully, and we needed some big sickness to make us realize that you should be outside. You should be enjoying the nature that surrounds you and taking care of the animals around you.

The pandemic was particularly difficult for children and teens. School, learning and social interaction were all interrupted. 

 during the pandemic, more than a third of high school students reported mental health challenges. Additionally, 44 percent said they felt persistently sad or hopeless.  

, found a majority of parents said COVID had a negative impact on their kids' education. 

 show students remain far below pre-pandemic levels in reading and math. 

In the early days it was unclear when students would get back into the classroom. And a lot changed when they did.  

I’m a teaching professor. The way I teach, we do a lot of activities, and it relies on students sitting in groups, discussing. Trying to shift that into an online thing was a lot of work. There was one semester where the students were just really struggling and grades just really went down. But I think as instructors, we then figured out, how to help the students adjust our classes so that they were, you know, filling gaps that maybe they missed out on in high school.

I’m a reading specialist. Having lost that one-to-one time was really hard when we went back to the classroom that fall. Then it was masked up. That was tough, especially for little kids. You felt like you were putting a muzzle on them. And then we had the plastic cubes, and you just felt, I don’t know you felt cut off.

One of my youngest daughters was in first grade, second grade. And then there’s a switch that flips and like, all of a sudden, now I have to do this over a computer screen. When they kind of let us back in now, we have to wear a mask in school all day. So fighting with my daughter to get her to just kind of like assimilate to what the new reality was tough.

I almost feel like I’m stuck being 15 or 16, sometimes. I didn’t have that time to truly develop as a teenager. As we were isolated at home by ourselves, we didn’t have time to really, see our friends, or go through those typical high school experiences.

I guess it made me more aware of how I need to cope when something traumatic happens in my life. And it helped me kind of discover, oh, maybe my feelings of anxiety that I felt when I was a kid are actually anxiety. It definitely helped me change as a person and I think I’m better because of the experience.

I’m 14. I used to be pretty social beforehand. I could make friends pretty easily in elementary school, but I’m more of an introvert now. I don’t talk to too many people unless I have to. That limited contact is probably one of the main things that led to that. That’s kind of why I’m here in Rochester. I’m doing therapy sessions, so I’m kind of trying to talk to more people. 

I failed every single one of my classes. I nearly failed out of high school as a result of the pandemic. I actually ended up going to this place called PrairieCare. It’s a therapy-school fusion. And I actually got diagnosed with autism as a result. So without COVID, I would have probably not had an autism diagnosis, which has been very helpful for me as an adult.

In all honesty, I was struggling a lot with suicidal thoughts and my mental health. Something that I do find that COVID-19 did for me, was cause me to realize it’s okay to talk to someone and get help. And I’m also, an extreme mental health advocate now.

If you or someone you know is struggling, there is help available. You can call or text 988 to get connected with trained counselors 24/7.

For many people, the COVID-19 pandemic was a reset. People were forced to slow down and had time to reflect on their lives and careers. Nearly 

 of Minnesotans changed or left their jobs, part of a nationwide phenomenon known as the Great Resignation.  

The pandemic dramatically changed lives and relationships. Many people said they were happy the pandemic’s worst surges are over and expressed gratitude for the lessons they learned during lockdown.   

For others, the pandemic and its effects are ongoing. In January, the state released its 

 on the impacts of long COVID. Four in ten Minnesotans who contracted the virus reported that they struggled with lingering health problems for months after they were diagnosed. Some people’s symptoms have never gone away.   

And for those who lost loved ones during this time, there is no forgetting. 

Our child was born in 2021 and during that time it was still uncertain. We weren’t out of the woods. Now that we are in a different space, I feel like I can look back at that and say, “That's what isolation felt like.” People feel isolated outside of global pandemics, right? How can we be kinder to each other? 

How can we push ourselves to build community, to build villages, to support each other, to talk to our neighbors? I personally have been moved to be much more intentional about building community, seeing people not taking time together for granted, and trying to instill that in our little guy.

Before COVID, I was not very conscious about what was going on in the world. Essentially, I feel like I just became more mature. I started to understand the reality and grasp what’s going on on our Earth, whether it be politically, economically, whether it be interactions between humans and how they’re affected by a global pandemic. 

I feel like I learned a lot. But it just made me who I am today. I’m not gonna lie. COVID, to me, is a blessing. It happened and I learned to live and learn from it.

I remember I was working construction. I had been focused really hard on making money and thinking that was the direction I needed to go with my life ... now I’m studying mechanical engineering, not really so I can get a job as a mechanical engineer, more so that I can have better control over my own life and my world and do what I want. I realized I didn’t want to just be toiling away as a mid-level employee just to have a mid-level existence.

I took three semesters off to just work and see how things were before I came to the University of Minnesota. That was a really good decision. I’m studying ecology, and before COVID, I was considering doing a chemical engineering degree. COVID definitely gave me time to figure out that was not the right choice for me and be like, “OK, what do I actually want to do? What is actually going to make me happy?”

I just basically was at my house, learning about the world, and my partner and I were sort of cohabitating. I had just started dating him and we’re actually getting married next week. But we didn’t really know each other super well at the time, and then we were sort of forced to know each other. 

I think that that period of time really made us understand that we really wanted to be together and had similar interests and outlooks on life. At some point, my parents were like, “We don’t support this interracial marriage.” When it came time to choose my happiness, I ended up staying with him.

I was pregnant during COVID. I’m gonna tell my son, “You was born during a crisis. You was meant to be here.” I could have got COVID when he was in my stomach and died. He was meant to be here, a doctor, a lawyer, the next grocery store worker. Who knows what God has planned? But he made it and he can possibly be the next cure to cancer or the next cure to global warming.

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On March 13, 2020, Gov. Tim Walz declared the COVID-19 pandemic a peacetime emergency. Five years later, Minnesotans look back on the early days of the public health crisis and the mark it left on their lives.

On March 13, 2020, Governor Walz declared the COVID-19 pandemic a peacetime emergency. Five years later, Minnesotans share their memories of the public health crisis and the mark it left on their lives.

24 Minnesotans reflect on how COVID-19 changed their lives

A woman stands near a window in a hotel room. 

Christine T. Nguyen | MPR News 2021

People wearing PPE in a hospital hallway.

Evan Frost | MPR News

A person painting the words "Open every day. Order online on a widow.

Judy Griesedieck for MPR News 

A students sits behind a barrier at a table. 

Jackson Forderer for MPR News

A man wearing PPE uses a needle to inject a women with a vaccine. 

24 Minnesotans reflect on how COVID-19 changed their lives

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