Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

COVID-19 In Montana: Looking Back And Looking Forward

The marque at the Babcock Theater in Billings reads "Wash Your Hands, We Will Be Back."
Nicky Ouellet
/
Yellowstone Public Radio
The Babcock Theater in Billings, pictured Mar. 23, 2020 during a statewide stay-home order issued by Gov. Steve Bullock in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

A year ago this week on the second Saturday of March in 2020, then-governor Steve Bullock held a press conference over a scratchy phone line to announce that four people in Montana had tested positive for COVID-19. A lot has changed since then.

Days later, schools closed their doors. By the end of the month, Bullock issued a stay-at-home order. National Guard soldier and airmen began screening out-of-state travelers at airports and railroad stations. Unemployment surged. Our lives changed in a big way.

MTPR's Corin Cates-Carney and YPR's Nicky Ouellet look back at where we've been and forward to where we're going.

Corin Cates-Carney is the Flathead Valley reporter for MTPR.