THE BIG STORY

Make sure you stay six feet away from this tiger

A tiger at the Bronx Zoo in New York City has tested positive for the coronavirus, the zoo’s operator said this weekend.

After Nadia, a 4-year old Malayan tiger, developed a dry cough and loss of appetite, “we tested the cat out of an abundance of caution and will ensure any knowledge we gain about COVID-19 will contribute to the world’s continuing understanding of this novel coronavirus,” the Wildlife Conservation Society said.

It’s still not clear exactly how the tiger was infected; the zoo assumes it was from one of its staffers. The US Department of Agriculture said it may be the first known case of a human spreading the virus to an animal, but there’s still much to discover about exactly how the virus can be transmitted between humans and animals.

But in the meantime, the USDA is advising sick people to avoid touching their pets unless it's absolutely necessary, and to wash your hands before and after any contact. And obviously stay away from that tiger, and really, any tigers.

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

How is the coronavirus affecting your city?

Our live tracking pages have been showing constantly updated data on how the coronavirus is spreading in the US and globally. But now we have a new tracking page that breaks down the numbers by cities and major metropolitan areas across the country.

Here, for example, you can see the total number of deaths and the death rate in the hardest hit metro areas in the country:

Here are the places that have been hardest hit relative to their population size:

And here’s how the toll is growing in a group of the biggest and hardest hit cities

You can see all the numbers for your city, and compare them to the rest of the country, on our live tracking page here.

SNAPSHOTS

Lawmakers are pushing back after the EPA announced it would relax enforcement of environmental regulations during the coronavirus outbreak. “This pandemic isn’t an excuse for polluters to ignore the law,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren told BuzzFeed News.

Queen Elizabeth gave a rare special address on Sunday, urging the public to show “self-discipline and resolve” in facing the coronavirus. It was only the fifth such speech in her 68 years on the throne.

Influencers are, regrettably, at it again. A number of well known lifestyle influencers have begun sharing ridiculous conspiracy theories on Instagram.

President Trump has fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general. Atkinson alerted lawmakers to the whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment; his firing was announced late on Friday night.

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PRAYER AND PANDEMIC

Religion and the outbreak

America’s churches, temples, synagogues and mosques have (mostly) closed their doors during the coronavirus crisis, but their attendees are still looking to practice their faith – often more so during a time of crisis. So religious communities, like everyone else, are going online.

“This distanced worship has allowed clergy to maintain a semblance of community during a despairing and isolated time,” reports Joe Bernstein. “But distance has also left religious leaders with an impossible circle to square. So many aspects of religious practice and community depend on physical presence, and technology can’t replace all of them.”

Lhoppön Rinpoche leads his first online meditation from Mipham Shedra Buddhist temple on March 29 in Westminster, Colorado. (Helen H. Richardson / Getty Images)

FROM CHINA TO ILLINOIS

What I've Learned About The Coronavirus From My Family In Wuhan

“To me, Wuhan is the heart of my family, of my roots, and of a fascinating culture,” writes Nicole Tong, a senior at Naperville North High School in Illinois.

“But to the rest of the world, Wuhan is now the cradle of the coronavirus, the city with the exotic animal marketplace that supposedly infected humans with a deadly virus. Never again will I be able to talk about my parents’ hometown without the gears turning in people’s minds as they wonder: Isn’t that...? Never again will I express the passionate ferocity I felt on “China Day” in third grade, racing to the map at the front of the room and stabbing my finger into the heart of the country for my classmates to see.”

We’ll get through this, Tong reminds us, and “as a resident of not only a nation, but a world, I hope we will come out of this stronger, more united. Being aware that we are living history is an otherworldly feeling. We will learn to appreciate the significant things and the small, hugging each other close. We will share stories with those in China, Italy, England, Iran, and many more about our universal yet unique experiences in isolation.”

A MOVIE FOR LOCKDOWN

Here’s one to watch

“Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is eerily suited to a viewing in lockdown,” writes Shannon Keating. The lesbian love story, set in France in the 18th century, only hit US cinemas a few months ago, but it has now been released early on streaming – and that’s good news for all of us, because it’s a masterpiece, albeit one with a tough ending.

“Every love story, after all, ends in tragedy,” Keating writes. “It’s just a matter of when. You need only look to the surprising, gorgeous romance tucked into HBO’s Watchmen to learn that lesson. There are no guarantees. No happy endings. There’s only the moments we have right in front of us — and the best and the worst of our memories. It feels like a particularly poignant, if heartbreaking, takeaway for our current moment, when any future at all seems terribly uncertain. But hopefully that just makes our love, however fleeting, however finite, all the sweeter.

Feel the sweetness of fleeting love today, and stay away from tigers,

Tom