It seems like the United States will be dealing with COVID-19 for the indefinite future. The Texas Department of Health reported that just this Saturday, amid the relaxation of social distancing protocols, over 1,800 new coronavirus cases have been reported, the highest single-day increase of confirmed cases since the pandemic began.  

Before this massive single-day increase, the average daily number of new infections was about 1,227, and the state had never seen an increase greater than 1,500 in one day. Texas began lifting social distancing protocols in early May and allowing restaurants, malls, movie theaters, and stores to open at 25% capacity. Gyms will be able to open, starting today at 25% capacity.  

On the increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases, Governor of Texas Greg Abbott said in a statement that this increase in confirmed cases was expected with an increase in testing being done. “These teams conducted a site survey of high-risk areas to begin testing employees in meat packing facilities,” Abbott continued, “Today, Texas is seeing the results of those tests and will continue to see these results in targeted areas over the next two weeks.” 

Even with these increases in cases, Gov. Abbott is expected to announce plans on Monday to move forward with reopening the state and allowing businesses to operate at an increased 50% capacity.

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The coronavirus news isn’t over just yet. The pandemic still has a hold on the nation, despite some States moving to re-open businesses, with California recently adding themselves to the list. Nonetheless, the number of cases and deaths continues to climb worldwide, with the United States cases currently totaling 1.2 million, and deaths reaching 70,000 plus. 

Scientists and researchers are still learning about the novel coronavirus, and it seems like every day a new revelation is made. From symptoms to contagiousness, we still don’t know everything about this virus. Now a new study led by the Los Alamos National Laboratory shows that the current dominant strain of COVID-19 is even more contagious than the original strain, from the early days of the pandemic. 

The Los Angeles Times reports that this new strain began to appear first in Europe in February, and travelled from there to the Middle East, and then the United States where it has now taken over and become the dominant strain of the coronavirus. Washington was among the first States to be affected by the original strain of the virus in February, however by March 15, the strain had mutated to the current dominant one. New York was infected with the original strain on March 15, however a few short days later the strain had already mutated to the dominant one. The study does not share the results for California’s cases.

The report states how, wherever this new strain of COVID-19 appeared, it spread much faster than it did originally in Wuhan, China, thus infecting more people– however the reason as to why it is so much more contagious than the original strain is unknown. Despite the fact that this new strain is more contagious, it is not necessarily more deadly– at least, we do not know exactly yet– a localized sample of 447 patients showed that hospitalization rates were similar for either version of the virus.

The Los Alamos team has been able to identify 14 different strains of the coronavirus, using computer analyzation of more than 6,000 coronavirus sequences from around the world.

Despite this rather terrifying news, Bette Korber, a computational biologist at Los Alamos shared a few optimistic words on her Facebook page in the face of it all.

“The story is worrying, as we see a mutated form of the virus very rapidly emerging, and over the month of March becoming the dominant pandemic form,” she wrote. She continued, “This is hard news, but please don’t only be disheartened by it. Our team at LANL was able to document this mutation and its impact on transmission only because of a massive global effort of clinical people and experimental groups, who make new sequences of the virus (SARS-CoV-2) in their local communities available as quickly as they possibly can.”

She added, “Please be encouraged by knowing the global scientific community is on this, and we are cooperating with each other in ways I have never seen … in my 30 years as a scientist.”

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Heems is an Indian-American rapper who was once apart of famed yet semi-controversial rap group Das Racist, which formed in Brooklyn, New York before disbanding circa 2012. Nonetheless Heems has continued his journey as an artist, going on to form Swet Shop Boys alongside Riz Ahmed. Last year, he actually came out as queer.

Today, Heems is in the news for an entirely different reason, but it’s one we’ve grown all too familiar with in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Heems’ father has passed away after suffering from the Coronavirus, and the rapper opened up about it to CNN.

Heems’ father was only 67 when he passed away, he had been living at a Long Island nursing home when the pandemic broke out, and caught the virus. This is apparently despite the fact that Heems’ had thought that his father was tested for COVID-19– buthe hadn’t been tested due to a lack of nasal swabs, as it turns out. “Why do I have to grieve with the notion of a supply chain?” he asks. We’ve been seeing many stories about the lack of testing readily available for those who need it.

Heems is still grateful for all the healthcare workers out there on the frontlines, adding, “I don’t operate from a place of hate or anger…” his voice trailed off, “but they never got swabs?”

“He was a prime candidate for something like this. But still that doesn’t ease my grief,” Heems continued later. “He seemingly went in his sleep peacefully. That is the narrative, at least, that I hope for.”

We’re sending our condolences to Heems’ and his family during this difficult time, and we’re hoping everyone is staying safe and staying home.

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Two autopsy results reveal deaths that resulted from the coronavirus during early to mid February, three weeks before the first known U.S. death was recorded from the deadly virus. These two deaths occurred February 6 and 17 in Northern California’s Santa Clara County. Previously, the first known death from the coronavirus was recorded on February 29th, in Kirkland, Washington, a major hotspot in the U.S. outbreak of COVID-19.

These findings help experts to know exactly how early this virus was actually spreading. Dr. Sara Cody, the county’s chief medical officer, states to New York Times the two California residents who died from COVID-19 didn’t have any known travel to China, or anywhere else they could possibly have been exposed to the virus. This lead them to believe the two have caught the virus through the community transmission.

Dr. Ashish K. Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, tells CNN, “Somebody who died on February 6, they probably contracted that virus early to mid-January. It takes at least two to three weeks from the time you contract the virus and you die from it. If they did not contract coronavirus through travel abroad, that also is significant. That means there was community spread happening in California as early as mid-January, if not earlier than that,” Jha said. He emphasized the importance of this new finding.

Jha stated it’s important for us to now re-trace our steps as far as back as January and early December, to find out when exactly the virus began to infect American soil.

At the time of these deaths, virus testing was limited to those who had traveled and those with certain symptoms. Both people died in their homes, and had their tissues tested for Coronavirus, as did another who died in early March (and also tested positive). 

This news essentially means that the Coronavirus U.S. numbers may be much higher than we think.

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As of Wednesday, Coronavirus cases around the world reached 2 million. The break-out of the deadly virus first began in Wuhan, China in December, while China was slow to inform the rest of the world about the virus, and it was quickly spreading in the meantime.

At the beginning of March, the rest of the world began to feel the wrath of COVID-19, as travellers exposed the virus to places other than China. COVID-19, thanks to all the advantages of a modern world (namely, flying), was able to spread from China, to Italy, to the United States, Canada, and just about any other crevice that man can reach by plane, train or car.

The latest numbers on Coronavirus cases comes from John Hopkins University. Even with these numbers, there are so many reports that China hasn’t exactly been honest with their numbers, so things could be askew. Nonetheless, the figures we have today state that there have been 130,000 deaths around the world due to COVID-19, while 500,000 people have recovered.

As far as areas with the most cases– United States leads the charge, with a reported total of 609,000 cases. For the first time in history, every single state in the U.S. has declared a state of emergency, while deaths reach 26,000. Inside of the States, New York now has almost 200,000 cases, New Jersey has 68,824 confirmed cases, Texas has just over 15,000 cases, while California has 25,356 cases.

Behind the U.S., Spain has a reported 177,000 cases (18,000 deaths), Italy has 162,000 + (21,000 deaths), China appears to have quelled the virus briefly, with 83,000 cases (3,200 + deaths) while Iran reports a total of 76,000 (4,700 deaths).

There are new names of celebrities that have tested positive for Coronavirus hitting the news each day. YNW Melly is among the artists who've tested positive, and he's currently locked up in prison, attempting to be released because of it. Last week, we also reported on how MC Eiht appeared to have tested positive. Adding to the list of rappers, we also know that Slim Thug has tested positive for the virus. Now, on the opposite coast, we have another rapper who tested positive for the virus.  

Fred the Godson shared the news on his Twitter, with a photo of himself using a ventilator. He asked his fans to keep him in his prayers. "I’m in here with this Covid-19 shit! Please keep me in y’all prayers!!!" he wrote on Twitter, ending with the hashtag "God is Great."

Fred the Godson, as a New York-based rapper, is really in the epicenter for the Coronavirus. New York has the most cases of the virus out of all the States, with the numbers climbing to 131,239 cases and 4,758 deaths as of writing. The first case in New York was detected on March 1st.

We're sending our best wishes to Fred the Godson for a speedy recovery.

Yesterday, we reported on how the United States was posed to overtake two of the countries that have been hit worse by the Coronavirus pandemic, that is, Italy and China. Well, shortly after that, it did indeed happen.

This morning, alongside news that even U.K’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has tested positive for Coronavirus, we also received news that the United States is officially ahead of Italy and China with confirmed Coronavirus cases. Around the world, countries are doing their best efforts to flatten the curve, that is to say, stifle the amount of new cases on a daily basis and slow the spread of the virus and disease in order to put less of a burden on the economy and perhaps more importantly, people.

Where China has a reported 81,000 cases of COVID-19, and Italy has approximately 80,000, United States is said to have accumulated 82,000 confirmed cases of the deadly virus. This is according to a report from John Hopkins University, where they’re tracking the grand tally of cases. The U.S. has reported 1,200 deaths due to the Coronavirus– 400 of those in New York, whereas Italy has an astounding 8,200 deaths. 

A record-breaking amount of Americans have applied for unemployment amid all of this, as we reported yesterday those numbers reached an all-time high– 3.3 million Americans.

We’re hoping that everyone is staying safe out there, and staying at home as much as possible, as we all do our part to help quell this pandemic.

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The spread of Coronavirus continues as the world has taken extensive steps to quarantine its citizens. We’ve watched as celebrities have come forward to confirm their diagnoses while stories of healthy individuals dying from the virus are reported. As people are exercising extreme precautions to combat the spread of the deadly virus, it’s being reported that the United States now leads Italy for the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world.

Italy has captured attention as the country was overwrought with ill citizens. The country was being watched by other countries and used as an example of how quickly a pandemic can spread and affect an economy. Now, John Hopkins University has compiled data that shows the United States has 82,000 confirmed cases, outnumbering Italy and China combined. According to the Huffington Post, following the U.S. are “Spain, France, Germany and Iran.”

While the States may have more cases, they are plenty of other countries that have more COVID-19-related deaths. There have been approximately 1,000 people in the U.S. who have lost their lives to COVID-19 and at the moment, HP calls New York City the “epicenter” of the United States. For now, the World Health Organization, along with government leaders, continue to advise people to stay home, practice social distancing, and follow precautionary measures to ensure cleanliness.

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