Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin recalls his time in quarantine after Apollo 11; gives a shoutout

NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin who is the second man after Neil Armstrong to walk on the moon on Sunday took to Twitter and asked, "How is everyone spending their quarantine time?"

Aldrin, very much an icon, recalled his quarantine time after Apollo 11 and said that he spent his time inside a secure building, the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, for 3 weeks. He added that he wrote mission reports, conducted debriefs and exercised. He also asked his followers to show how they are staying safe from COVID-19

'Show me how you're staying safe from COVID-19'

After returning from the Moon in 1969, Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins spent 21 days in quarantine to prevent the spread of any contagions they might have brought back from the lunar surface. Last week, recalling his quarantine period back, Aldrin stated that Collins and he would exercise and jog a little bit around the hallway to kill time.

USA toll due to Coronavirus pandemic hits new records

US President Donald Trump on Sunday extended the national social-distancing guidelines aimed at fighting the COVID-19 pandemic to April 30, a month longer than initially scheduled and well past the Easter goal he had set for "opening up our country.''

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The number of new Coronavirus cases in the United States, already the world's highest, reached new records on Saturday, a count by Johns Hopkins University showed. Over the past 48 hours, the United States had a record 453 deaths linked to the COVID-19 illness, bringing the country's toll to 1,891 deaths since the pandemic began.

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That is fewer than the 10,023 in Italy, Spain's 5,812, China's 3,299 or the 2,317 in France, the tally showed. But the United States since Thursday has recorded the world's highest number of cases. As of 1855 GMT Saturday, Johns Hopkins recorded 115,547 US cases. That included a 23% jump of 21,309 in one day, also a record.

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(With PTI inputs)