FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — We’re about to mark the one-year anniversary of one of the worst health emergencies of its time – the coronavirus pandemic.
Fond du Lac County remembers it vividly. The county was the hardest hit part of Northeast Wisconsin, at the onset of the pandemic.
“We’ve experienced all of it, you know, just from like the first notification of our first cases Mar. 11,” Fond du Lac County public health officer Kim Mueller said. “At least my staff and myself, we won’t forget.”
Mar. 11 – the day Fond du Lac County reported two positive cases, and the first in Northeast Wisconsin.
“We saw our first patient at St. Agnes Hospital, and I remember my very initial thought being surprised,” St. Agnes Hospital president Katherine Vergos said. “I did not think that we would be one of the first.”
COVID cases rapidly turned into six, and six into 11, in just a matter of days.
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been almost a year since cases started popping up in Fond du Lac, and it was inside the Fond du Lac County Government Center that Mueller would brief the media on the current COVID situation.
“There was so much going through all of our minds,” she recalled. “I think the biggest thing was, you know, how big is this and what are our next steps in order to help tackle, what we knew, was a big problem.”
Of those first 11 cases, four would be tied directly to an Egyptian River cruise.
Dale Witkowski was one of them, and would also be the first to die in the county from the virus.
“It was really hard,” Vergos said. “I think that one, and everyone after it is still very hard.”
Witkowski worked at Mercury Marine, up until the very day he became ill.
He died on Mar. 19.
“With the passing of Dale, it just became so much more real, and the terrible impact that this could have on our employees,” Mercury Marine president Chris Drees said.
Mercury Marine would immediately take its operations down and transition to a work-from-home company.
Looking back, those we spoke to say it wasn’t always all bad. There’d be many changes and hard lessons, but also many small victories along the way. And, there’s nothing they’d do differently.
“We really don’t regret anything,” Drees said. “I look back at the decisions made, and I think we were spot-on.”
Vergos says, while it was tough, at times, she wouldn’t change what she had to endure, because she went through it with the best team of fellow healthcare workers.
“We did the best we could with what we had,” she said. “We gave our all.”
