'She Was Fearless': Teacher Whose Video Touched Millions Dies

ACROSS AMERICA — Zelene Blancas was the first grade teacher whose classroom routine — in which her students gave each other a hug, handshake, a high-five or a fist bump at the end of the school day — captured the hearts of millions who viewed and shared a video she made of it in 2018.

Just over two years later, Blancas' students and co-workers at Dr. Sue A. Shook Elementary School in El Paso, Texas, are in shock after learning Blancas has died at age 35 due to complications from the coronavirus.

Blancas died Dec. 28, just over two months after her first positive test, her friend, Nick Adkins, wrote on Facebook. She had been in the intensive care unit at an El Paso-area hospital since Oct. 24, according to a report from Today.

"Zelene always had a positive smile and loved all," someone who knew her wrote on her obituary wall. "She was fearless. One time she climbed into a cave, I personally would never have done. She was so brave."

Blancas is one of more than 28,000 Texas residents who have died of the virus since the pandemic began in March, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. New York is the only state that has reported more coronavirus deaths than Texas.

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The Latest

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released details on what is known about the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant that was first found in the United Kingdom. There's nothing to suggest the variant increases the severity of the illness, the CDC said.

Health experts have previously said the variant is more contagious and can spread faster.

"New information about the virologic, epidemiologic, and clinical characteristics of these variants is rapidly emerging," the CDC said.

The variant has now been identified in four states and 33 countries, including the United States and Canada.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday the first case reported in the Empire State is of a man in his 60s from Saratoga Springs who had not traveled recently. The variant, which experts have said is as much as 70 percent more contagious, had already been identified in Colorado, California and Florida.

As the epicenter of the virus in the United States remains in California, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said a new confirmed case is being reported in the county every six seconds.

"This is something now that really is spreading in the home," Garcetti said on "Face The Nation." "It's a message for all of America: We might not all have the same density as L.A., but what's happening in L.A. can and will be coming in many communities in America."

As America leaves the holidays behind, some public health officials are still fearing what's to come: the aftermath of gatherings that no doubt will fuel a new surge of illness and death.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said on "Meet The Press" that what's to come is "terrible" but it's also predictable.

It's predictable likely because American airports recorded their busiest day of the pandemic on Saturday, with nearly 1.2 million passengers passing through security checkpoints, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

Since Dec. 18, the agency has counted more than 16.3 million trips through its airport checkpoints, down from more than 35.4 million in the same period a year ago. Tens of millions more people were also expected to travel by car, the New York Times reported.

The virus's spread continues to make an impact on professional sports, and on the upcoming National Football League playoffs. Kevin Stefanski, head coach of the Cleveland Browns, had a positive test reported on Tuesday. The team had already reported six positive cases among players in recent weeks.

The Browns are in the playoffs for the first time since 2002, with a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers still on the slate for Sunday night.

The increasing spread has focused more urgent attention on delivering the vaccine against the virus. On Sunday, a top official for Operation Warp Speed floated one possible solution to protect Americans: halving the dose of each Moderna vaccine to potentially double the number of people who could receive it.

Data from Moderna's clinical trials showed that people between the ages of 18 and 55 who received two 50-microgram doses showed an "identical immune response" to the standard of two 100-microgram doses, said Dr. Moncef Slaoui.

Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida, agreed that there might be more data to support a vaccine strategy that relied on half-doses rather than delayed doses.

"There is a path forward if you can show that two lower doses yield a similar immune response," Dean told the New York Times.

So far, federal officials have failed to outline a plan for distributing vaccines to U.S. states.

In New York, Cuomo said Monday that fines could be levied against hospitals that do not use up their vaccine supply by the end of the week, Reuters and others have reported. Those hospitals also risk getting cut off from future vaccine supplies, the governor said.

And in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said any hospital chain that fails to meet its vaccination goals will have its doses taken away and given to facilities that will distribute them more quickly.

Meanwhile, overworked, underfunded state public health departments are scrambling to patch together plans for administering vaccines.

Amid the different approaches, a multitude of logistical concerns has complicated the process, leading to long lines, confusion, frustration and jammed phone lines.

As of Monday, the CDC reported that nearly 4.6 million shots have been dispensed in the U.S., according to The Associated Press.

Over the weekend, U.S. government officials did report that vaccinations had accelerated significantly, with Fauci saying 1.5 million shots were administered in 72 hours, or about 500,000 per day, according to the AP.

Newest Numbers

At least 3,337 deaths and 209,898 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the United States on Tuesday as of 5 p.m. ET, according to a Washington Post database. The Post's reporting shows that over the past week, new daily cases increased by 23.1 percent, new daily deaths rose by 19.7 percent and new coronavirus-related hospitalizations increased by 6.1percent.

Currently, more than 128,210 people are hospitalized with a coronavirus-related illness in the United States, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

As of Tuesday, 48 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. Only Vermont, Hawaii and the District of Columbia are currently below that rate. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the United States had reported more than 20.9 million cases and more than 356,200 deaths from COVID-19-related illnesses, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

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