With 2020 coming to a close, it’s time to take a look back on some of the biggest stories of the year and there’s no bigger story than the Coronavirus and the impact it’s had on the area. Originating in Wuhan, China at the end of last year, COVID-19 spread globally in a few short months with the first cases being reported in the United States in February. It would be March 27th before Knox County saw its first confirmed case of the novel virus. That individual was a male in his 50s, staying at the Galesburg Rescue Mission. Since then, there have been 3-thousand 956 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus in the county and 96 people have died after contracting it. Schools in the area have been forced to alter their methods of educating, some going strictly to remote learning while others attempt a hybrid approach, teaching a few days a week and remote learning the rest. Restaurants and bars have been hit hard with the lack of indoor dining services and Plexiglas barriers installed at almost all retail establishments. With the recently approved vaccine, the hope is that life will return to normal early in 2021.