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What you need to know for Monday, March 1, 2021

Good morning Tampa Bay! Welcome to March!

TAMPA, Fla — Good morning Tampa Bay! It's Monday, March 1, 2021. 

Let's get the day started with the stories you need to know about. 

1 year of COVID-19 in Florida 😷

Today marks one year since the state of Florida announced its first two cases of COVID-19. 

One of them was a woman in Hillsborough County who had traveled to Italy. The other was a man in Manatee County with no travel history. 

Now, one year later, we're still in the pandemic. While there is light at the end of the tunnel with three approved vaccines, more than a million people in Florida have tested positive for the virus.

RELATED: Coronavirus in Florida: 1 year after the first cases

Remembering their journey home 

Before Florida officially announced its first cases of the novel coronavirus in March 2020, a cruise ship off the coast of Japan with Americans on board was a focal point during the outbreak.  🚢

The Diamond Princess was out for a two-week voyage with more than 3,700 passengers. Among them was Phil and Gay Courter from Crystal River in Citrus County.  

The two talked to 10 Tampa Bay about their experience trying to get home after a passenger on that ship tested positive for COVID-19. Once they were back in the U.S., they were taken to Texas where they had to quarantine at an Air Force base. Then, by early March last year, the Courters were finally allowed to return home. 

Now, the Courters say they have been very careful, but still keeping busy. They are both fully vaccinated and even took a trip to Boston to see the grandkids they haven't seen in more than a year!. 

Credit: wtsp

RELATED: Tampa Bay couple remembers journey home 1 year after being trapped on a cruise ship due to COVID-19

Let's talk about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine 💉

The Food and Drug Administration gave Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine the green light for emergency use authorization over the weekend. 

It's the third COVID-19 vaccine to get approval in the U.S. and is expected to start arriving in the states this week. 

But, there are a lot of questions still out there about the single-shot vaccine. So, we took them to our expert, USF Health virologist Dr. Teng, to get answers. 

RELATED: Expert addresses 3 of the most frequently asked questions about J&J's COVID vaccine

RELATED: J&J's single-shot COVID vaccine gets FDA emergency use authorization

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