More States Find Variant; N.Y. Cases Reach Record: Virus Update Bloomberg 1/7/2021 Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) -- Connecticut, Texas and Pennsylvania reported their first cases of the virus variant that helped trigger a U.K. lockdown amid concern that Covid-19 deaths in the U.S. are likely to maintain a near-record pace at least through January. Mounting hospitalizations are offsetting any positive effect from the halting start to inoculations. New York, New Jersey, Florida and North Carolina are among states that reported daily records as Illinois became the fifth state to surpass 1 million infections. Fatalities in Arizona reached a high and those in California were just two deaths from the record set at the end of 2020.