On Feb. 19, the headline at the bottom of The Observer’s front page read, “Ga. health officials wary of coronavirus, but say flu is bigger threat here.” As far as we can tell, it was the first time the coronavirus had made our front page.

At that time, no one in Georgia had tested positive. Only 15 Americans had, and 14 of them were passengers on the Diamond Princess cruise ship outside of Japan. Worldwide, there were 73,424 cases and 1,873 deaths, most of them in China.

Two months make a huge difference. As of Friday afternoon, the state Department of Public Health reported 17,194 cases in Georgia, 115 of them Colquitt County residents. Five Colquitt County residents — and 645 other Georgians — have died. Around the world there have been 2.2 million confirmed cases and almost 150,000 deaths.

States of emergency have shut down schools and many businesses across the country. Unemployment claims have obliterated previous records.

Through it all, The Moultrie Observer has been covering the virus, the cancellations and the economic turmoil. The pages of this newspaper have included more than 150 stories in those two months that related directly to some aspect of the coronavirus.

We’ve published several times as many virus-related stories online as we did in the print edition. That includes daily or twice-daily updates from Colquitt Regional Medical Center and twice-daily updates from the state Department of Public Health, as well as state, national and international stories from other news sources.

The vast majority of those online stories have been provided free of charge for at least 24 hours after publication.

We want you to know what’s going on with this virus, even if you don’t subscribe. This is the health of our community we’re talking about.

Keep up with our coverage at moultrieobserver.com/covid-19.

If you value what you find there — and if your circumstances allow — please consider subscribing. Visit moultrieobserver.com/subscriptions to get started.

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Support from our subscribers and advertisers is what allows us to continue to cover our community — through the coronavirus and all the other challenges that Moultrie and Colquitt County may face in the future.

To everyone who already partners with us in this endeavor: Thank you. We literally could not do it without you.