One year of life-changing uncertainty 500,000 cases, 10,000 deaths: 1 year anniversary of COVID in Alabama Updated on Mar 13, 2021; Published on Mar 13, 2021 March 2020 began with hopes of a regular year filled with school, NCAA basketball, summer travel and fall football. March 2021 finds us in a very different world with quarantines, nose swab testing, vaccines, safer-at-home orders and virtual school. This is how we got here. N. Scott Trimble | strimble@syracuse.com Twitter Share Alabama’s involvement with coronavirus didn’t start with its first case being announced on March 13, 2020. A week earlier, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would bring COVID-19 positive evacuees from the cruise ship the Diamond Princess to FEMA facilities in Alabama, the first time the state had to confront growing concerns over the virus. Amid uproar from the public and elected officials, that plan was canceled.