On Friday morning, an important announcement came out of Washington, DC.

A spokesperson for Vice President Mike Pence confirmed there was a confirmed case of coronavirus within his cabinet.

The world is currently in an incredibly turbulent time.

The deadly coronavirus, or COVID-19, as medical experts are referring to it, has taken our planet hostage, and is showing no signs of letting go anytime soon.

Over 200,000 people have now been infected with the virus.

225,327, to be precise. And, tragically, a staggering 9,276 more have reportedly died from the illness.

And, here in the States, we aren't faring much better.

Since the first confirmed case of the virus in Washington in February, the numbers have risen to 9,464 across the full country, and a further 155 have died.

Several cities have declared states of emergencies...

And a number of different states have been forced to close their restaurants and bars in an attempt to prevent any further spread of the virus.

World leaders have been scrambling to find a solution to the outbreak for months now...

But our own President has taken a little bit longer to consider the pandemic as a serious threat.

Trump has remained valiantly confident in America's resilience to the virus.

In January, just after the initial COVID-19 outbreak, he was quizzed on his thoughts on the virus, in which he replied: “It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine."

And, even when the number of COVID-19 cases in America started to climb...

He remained calm, and repeatedly stressed that there was nothing to be too worried about.

Trump has persistently fought against the media regarding the pandemic.

And, at one point, even dubbed the virus as being a "fake news media" conspiracy.

And, as the months trickled by...

President Trump simply wouldn't budge from his stance on the virus and even went on to compare it to the common flu. This was one of his most dangerous and false statements about the virus, and caused plenty of outrage amongst both Americans and people all over the world.

And, the very next day, the President was accused of "lying" to the American public regarding free medical testing.

“When people need a test, they can get a test," he said earlier this month. “When the professionals need a test, when they need tests for people, they can get the test. It’s gone really well." However, this certainly wasn't the case, and millions of Americans, to this day, are still struggling to get tested for the virus.

Things needed to change.

And fast. As the number of coronavirus cases and deaths grew here in the States, people were growing increasingly more concerned with Trump's blaze attitude regarding the pandemic.

But, thankfully, Trump seemed to have a sudden change of heart.

On March 13th, mere days after he compared COVID-19 to the common flu, he finally declared a national emergency.

This move freed up around $50 billion in federal funding...

And promised a new screening website and more drive-by medical tests.

It seems that now, President Trump is finally taking the pandemic seriously.

In a press conference on Monday, Trump admitted: "We have a problem that a month ago nobody ever thought about."

The President has been doing some serious backtracking.

And this week insisted that he "felt it was a pandemic long before it was declared a pandemic."

He has now been sending a very different message to his people...

And, like the other world leaders have all been doing, has been encouraging his citizens to band together and support one another.

And he has sent out a message of love and positivity to all those affected by the virus.

"We love them, we're with them, we will not let them down!"

And the latest out of the White House might be the biggest news yet.

"This evening we were notified that a member of the Office of the Vice President tested positive for the Coronavirus," spokeswoman Katie Miller confirmed.

"Neither President Trump nor Vice President Pence had close contact with the individual."

"Further contact tracing is being conducted in accordance with CDC guidelines." It seems coronavirus strikes indiscriminately - although it's clear that for those diagnosed with celebrity status do tend to have a rather different experience ...

Coronavirus began in Wuhan, China

But people think it was predicted a long time before.

Some people even think it began with Tangled.

Yes that's right. There's a theory that Disney's Tangled predicted the growth and spread of Coronavirus... I wasn't expecting this either this morning.

Tangled came out ten years ago.

And it tells the story of Rapunzel - who was locked in a tower for 18 years (self-isolation? Quarantined?).

And the town outside is called?

Corona... Pretty spooky huh!

It's certainly pretty weird.

Nobody can deny that.

COVID-19 is hitting everybody.

While the number of cases go up, and the death toll as well, it's affecting every single one of us - even those who aren't infected.

Unfortunately it's hurting animals too.

And this little pooch sprained his tail from wagging it so much...

Why?

Well the happy little doggo couldn't believe his luck when every single person in the house was there all the time.

Tweeting about it, his owner wrote:

So my dog has been so happy that everyone is home for quarantine, that his tail has stopped working, so we went to the vet and the vet said ‘he had sprained his tail from excessively wagging. Didn’t expect this happen, for those asking, he is currently on pain relief and the vet said he should be healed within a week, this is him on the 2nd day. He is super happy and there is now movement from side to side but he is struggling to lift it up in the air. His name is Rolo and he is a Dachshund (sausage dog).

However, some people aren't taking it seriously.

And many of those people are in California, USA.

California is on lockdown.

Just days ago the entire state was placed on lockdown, with around 40 million people told to try their best to stay indoors and distance themselves from other people.

But photos show...

They're all going to the beach...

What the hell?

Come on guys, just stay home for a few weeks...

And even now.

Weeks after the initial lockdown, countless L.A. civilians continue to violate the social distancing measures? Why?!

They took to the trails yesterday.

And there are countless photos which prove it...

Just stay at home!

It really isn't that hard.

Or things will get much much worse.

Just listen to the experts for once!