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HOUSTON – Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo announced that she is self-quarantining after being potentially exposed to COVID-19 last week. The exposure came on Monday from a member of the Harris County Judge’s office, who tested positive and now is self-isolating. Hidalgo and staff who were potentially exposed will be tested and are self-quarantining for 14 days from exposure until Monday, July 6, following the CDC guidelines. Hidalgo has not shown any symptoms. “Given what we have learned, I will be quarantining at home. The reality of it is, there are thousands of residents across Harris County that are increasingly finding themselves in the same position I am in today,” said Judge Hidalgo. “There are rising numbers of residents testing positive for this virus, and more and more requiri...

On this edition for Sunday, June 28, the number of coronavirus cases worldwide crosses ten million with the U.S. leading with over 2.5 million cases. Also, the race to change names and overhaul brands amid a historic reckoning over racism and how Samoa island is finding alternatives to plastic. Hari Sreenivasan anchors from Florida.

The novel coronavirus – SARS-CoV-2 – may have been in Europe for longer than previously thought. Recent studies have suggested that it was circulating in Italy as early as December 2019. More surprisingly, researchers at the University of Barcelona found traces of the virus when testing untreated wastewater samples dated 12 March 2019.   The study was recently published on a preprint server, medRxiv. The paper is currently being subject to critical review by outside experts in preparation for publication in a scientific journal. Until this process of peer review has been completed, though, the evidence needs to be treated with caution. So, how was the experiment conducted and what exactly did the scientists find? One of the early findings about SARS-CoV-2 is that it is found in the f...