# data[].attributes.body
During quarantine, there wasn’t much to do, so we didn’t really have a schedule or plans. Days seemed to morph together and there was no significance in checking the date anymore.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a photo from when my family and my best friend went to Universal for my birthday! My birthday was the first Monday of eighth grade, so we went over the summer.

# data[].attributes.body
Despite the downsides, COVID was definitely a life-saver for many introverts! We didn’t have to talk to anyone we didn’t want to because everything was either cancelled or online.

# data[].attributes.body
I found myself drawing a lot over quarantine, since there really wasn’t much to do. This was one of the first sketches I drew on my iPad.

# data[].attributes.body
These are my dance friends. I’ve been dancing my whole life and been with the same studio for almost ten years! I’ve grown up with these girls and they’ve definitely become second family to me.

# data[].attributes.body
Even though cases of COVID were going down by then, my parents had me stay in online school for the first quarter of seventh grade. It was kind of boring because we couldn’t really participate in a lot of stuff like labs or activities, even though the majority of us were online. However, it wasn’t all bad. It actually helped me meet a few people before I jumped into in-person classes. I think it may have helped me become more comfortable with my teachers and classmates before actually going. Luckily, my best friend and I physically joined school at the same time, so we had someone to hang out with. I am kind of disappointed that I didn’t get the full junior high experience, though, but I did get a full year of eighth grade! This year has been so fun and I’m so glad that I get to come to this school next year with a half-scholarship!! All of my friends are planning on staying, so I’m not worried about social life in high school, although I am a bit nervous about the workload. My sister is currently a Junior and she is extremely busy with homework alone, never mind extracurricular activities. Hopefully the transition from junior high to high school will be smooth, and it definitely should be, since my teachers in eighth grade have prepared us well.

# data[].attributes.body
This is a photo of my current friend group! We’re all super close and have the same type of humor. It’s really fun to hang out with people who understand you all the time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Hospital admission totals tick up after weeks of rising COVID-19 cases

# data[].attributes.body
Recently, hospitals have been extremely crowded due to COVID. There have been so many cases that some can’t take in normal patients because of limited space. This result is definitely unheard of until now. Corona is definitely changing a lot of things in this world, permanent or not.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Nearly 2,400 virus-positive people are being admitted to the hospital each day.

Following weeks of increasing infection rates, a growing number of Americans are heading into the hospital in need of care.

On average, nearly 2,400 virus-positive Americans are being admitted to the hospital each day, up by 17% in the last week, according to federal data. Forty-one states and territories have reported increases of 10% or more in their daily number of COVID-19-related hospital admissions.

In the U.S., there continues to be an uptick in the overall number of patients requiring care for COVID-19, with now about 19,100 patients hospitalized across the country. Overall, the total remains significantly lower than every other COVID-19 surge. In January, there were 160,000 patients hospitalized with the virus.

The U.S. is reporting more than 68,000 new cases every day, up by 20% in the last week, and 52% in the last two weeks. The nation's daily case average has more than doubled in the last month.

Over the last week, nearly every state in the county - 45 states and territories - have seen increases of 10% or more in their daily COVID-19 infection rates.

Last week, counties across the Northeast moved into the "high" risk category for COVID-19 risk, after weeks of increasing cases and hospitalizations.

The "high" community-level transmission suggests there is a "high potential for health care system strain" and a "high level of severe disease." Thus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends people wear a mask in public indoor settings, including schools.

As infection rates continue to increase across the country, some health experts are questioning how much higher totals are than initially reported.

"We're probably missing a lot," David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News last week. "I would not be surprised to find out that our confirmed case count is under-counting the total number of cases by a factor of two or three. I think it's quite possible that we're having right now, as many cases as we were during the, you know, the delta wave of August or September, certainly not what we had this past winter, but we probably are having a lot more cases than what's currently being reported."

While some epidemiologists suggest that hospitalization data has become less reliable, as states stop reporting key metrics, health experts said they are more reliable than case numbers.

"We see that the number of hospitalizations being reported has again increased by about 20 to 30% from the low back in April. So while we may not have a perfect read on those numbers, they are more reliable than the case counts," Dowdy said.

Despite increases in other metrics, the average of daily COVID-19-related deaths remains at a persistent plateau. The average currently stands at 340 fatalities a day. That is still much lower than during the omicron peak in early February, when the U.S. was reporting more than 2,600 deaths every day.

The U.S. is also now less than 2,500 deaths away from hitting 1 million COVID-19 related deaths, putting the nation on track to reach the milestone in the next week.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Hospital admission totals tick up after weeks of rising COVID-19 cases

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Nearly 2,400 virus-positive people are being admitted to the hospital each day. Following weeks of increasing infection rates, a growing number of Americans are heading into the hospital in need of care. On average, nearly 2,400 virus-positive Americans are being admitted to the hospital each day, up by 17% in the last week, according to federal data.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
This is a picture from when my family went on a trip to New York this Spring break. We had to wear masks because of Corona, but it was still super fun!

# data[].attributes.body
If I hadn’t had my dogs during quarantine, I’m not even sure how I would’ve coped. My family has two Westies: Mochi and Matcha. On the contrary to how most of us felt about quarantine, I’m sure house pets everywhere absolutely loved it. Pet owners all over the world were staying home all day every day, and a lot of us didn’t have much to do. In my case, most of my free time went to the dogs, and they definitely enjoyed that.

# data[].attributes.body
During quarantine, there wasn’t much to do, and things started getting really boring. Obviously, a lot of people jumped to entertainment. After the Avengers era of the MCU was over, Marvel started releasing TV shows (mostly about the same characters). In my opinion, they are just as good as the movies and definitely helped me get through quarantine. My favorite shows were WandaVision and Loki. It was definitely a different side to Marvel and I really enjoyed seeing it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_caption
Video: Putin Announces Invasion of Ukraine

# data[].attributes.body
On the morning of February 24th, Putin invaded Ukraine at full force. He didn’t give good reason and attacked with airforce, missiles, and military. This has impacted so many people in Ukraine because they weren’t expecting it. Also, we can’t help them with fighting because that would mean the start of WWIII. However, we are sending supplies and advice.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Video: Putin Announces Invasion of Ukraine

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
On Russian state television, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia declared the start of a “special military operation” in Ukraine, and falsely accused its government of committing genocide.

# data[].attributes.body
After school was moved to virtual, a lot of things changed, including how people would skip class. All you had to do was mute yourself and turn off your camera and people would still get credit for going.

# data[].attributes.body
This was funny to me because the pandemic definitely was not a normal experience. It was the first time in a century that we had one this big and it really took some getting used to.

# data[].attributes.body
When I first heard about the pandemic, it was the beginning of March 2020, my sixth grade year. Everyone was going about as normal, and we had gone on our sea-world trip a month ago. What I thought was a rumor started going around. People were saying that there was a virus and we would have to stay home from school for a few weeks. Being sixth graders, we were super excited and thought it would be like another break. Soon enough, on March 13th, our teachers told us we wouldn’t be having school for two weeks. This turned out to be the biggest understatement of the century. Two weeks turned into multiple months, and we finished off the year on google meet for the first time. Little did we know, this would become our life for the next year and a half. That summer, COVID was the reason for everything that went down-hill. My dance studio had to cancel the recital and almost all the remaining classes for the year. The next school year, we had to move to a smaller studio space. But even as things were set back and cancelled, there seemed to be a sense of group support. Everybody could relate to each other’s problems, and it felt nice.