Ice-T reveals he has ‘five friends fighting COVID’ as cases surge across the country
'It's not gone,' the rapper said of the deadly virus in a Monday afternoon tweet.
Rapper and actor Ice-T issued another sobering reminder to his fans on Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over.
“I’ve got 5 friends fighting Covid right now … 2 in the hospital,” the Law and Order: Special Victims Unit star wrote in a Tuesday afternoon tweet. “I know it’s been a long run… … But it’s NOT gone. Stay safe people.”
The 63-year-old father of three’s words of caution came as COVID-19 cases surged across the country. The daily average of COVID-19 cases reached more than 243,000 on Monday, a 14-day change rate of 105%, according to the New York Times.
The omicron variant now accounts for nearly 59% of diagnosed COVID cases in the U.S., according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The dire health effects of COVID-19 are a reality with which Ice-T has become all too familiar. Thirteen months ago, the hip-hop legend revealed his wife Coco Austin‘s father, Steve Austin, had changed his views about the deadly disease after it put him in an Arizona hospital in June of 2020.
“My father-in-law ‘Coco’s dad’ was a serious ‘No Masker’ COVID hit him,” Ice-T tweeted in November 2020. “Pneumonia in both lungs.. 40 days in ICU close to death.. Now he’s on Oxygen indefinitely.”
Ice-T told Jimmy Fallon in July 2020 that it took his wife’s dad “a month to make it out of the hospital,” according to People.
“Now he’s home, but his lungs are damaged indefinitely,” the rapper told Fallon at the time. “There are still non-believers. … I’ve made it through so much in my life, I don’t want to die because of this — especially with a new daughter. I’m aware and I’m concerned and I’m cautious.”
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