Two years ago Tuesday, New York confirmed its first COVID-19 case. Not much was known about the virus then, and no one knew how much worse it was about to get.
Hospitals quickly reached their breaking point, there was a nationwide PPE shortage as well as a dire need for tests.
"We kind of knew in our gut, this was not something to mess up," said Dr. Angela Chan, who was the first doctor to diagnose a COVID patient in New York at Manhattan's Mt. Sinai Hospital.
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"It was really luck of the draw that we happened to test her first," Dr. Chen said.
The identity of the woman who tested positive has never been revealed. All that is known is that she was a 39-year-old health care worker from Manhattan who had traveled to Iran.
"I remember saying to her, i think this is it," Chen said in a 2021 interview.
She became known as "patient zero," although in reality, she was one of thousands of New Yorkers who had contracted the virus, even before it was declared a global pandemic.
"At that point, I was still telling people who wanted to come to the emergency department that had symptoms for COVID … you probably do have it, but unfortunately, I can't test you," said Dr. Chen.
The same day of that first positive test, the NYC Health Department tweeted, "The risk to New Yorkers remains low. NYC is fully prepared to respond."
That is not what happened, as a generational pandemic gripped the world, and left NYC a ghost town for the most part for at least a few months. Two years later, the constant sirens have subsided, and COVID restrictions are finally being lifted.
While the pandemic isn't over yet, Dr. Chen is cautiously optimistic.
"I think we have made a tremendous amount of progress," she said. "Even if we're unable to prevent people from getting COVID and being exposed to COVID, we do have things to prevent them from getting very very ill."
Two years ago, Dr. Chen was so concerned about bringing the virus home that her 1-year-old son spent four months with grandparents in New Jersey. The only visits for Chen came through a window.
"It was hard recognizing those are moments I wont' be able to get back. I think putting his health and safety first is never something I'll regret," she said.
