Trump to travel to Arizona Honeywell facility next week amid push to lift coronavirus restrictions - USA TODAY

Trump to travel to Arizona Honeywell facility next week amid push to lift coronavirus restrictions - USA TODAY
Coronavirus in USA: Live News - The New York Times
US coronavirus cases surpass 1 million and the death toll is greater than US losses in Vietnam War - CNN
Jobless claims climb to 30 million in six weeks as COVID-19 layoffs continue to rise - USA TODAY
Euro zone economy sinks; Spain's daily coronavirus deaths at lowest tally in nearly 6 weeks - CNBC

Posted: 29 Apr 2020 07:15 PM PDT

President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis discussed the re-opening of Florida's businesses during a White House meeting. Wochit

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump will travel to Phoenix on Tuesday, leaving the confines of Washington for the first time in more than a month as the administration begins pushing states to ease coronavirus restrictions that have crippled the U.S. economy.

The president will visit a Honeywell aerospace facility that is expanding its production to meet the demand for the critical N-95 respirator masks needed for health care workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, according to White House spokesman Judd Deere.

"The visit will highlight Honeywell's investment in critical medical equipment production within the United States and the addition of 500 manufacturing jobs in Arizona," Deere said in a statement. "President Trump and his Administration, and the Coronavirus Task Force continue to lead the fight for Arizona and the country against this invisible enemy."

The president revealed his travel plans earlier Wednesday during a roundtable discussion with business executives from companies including Hilton, Waffle House and Wynn Resorts.

"I think I'm going to Arizona next week. We look forward to that. And I'm going to, I hope, Ohio very soon," Trump told reporters.

Executive order: Trump orders meat and poultry processing plants to stay open during coronavirus

The trip to Arizona and possibly Ohio, both considered battleground states in November's election, comes as Trump has signaled his eagerness for states to begin allowing residents to return to work and reopening schools and businesses.

The president has not left the White House since March 28, when he traveled to Norfolk, Virginia, to send off the USS Comfort, a Navy hospital ship deployed to assist with New York City's coronavirus response. Trump is also expected to travel to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point on June 13 to deliver a commencement address.

More: 'My Fellow American': Donald Trump letter to stimulus check recipients raises objections

"We're going to start to move around and hopefully in the not-too-distant future, we'll have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other. I can't imagine a rally where you have every fourth seat full – every sixth seat's empty for every one that you have full. That wouldn't look too good," Trump told reporters Wednesday.

"I hope we're going to be able to do some good old-fashioned 25,000-person rallies where everyone is going wild because they love our country."

Vice President Mike Pence has paved the way for the president's expected travel schedule, according to a senior administration official, by visiting a series of manufacturing plants and health care sites in recent weeks.

Pence traveled to Rochester, Minnesota, on Tuesday to visit the Mayo Clinic, where he faced criticism for appearing to flout the clinic's face mask policy, and is expected to tour a GM ventilator plant in Kokomo, Indiana, on Thursday.

Last week he traveled to Wisconsin, also considered a key state crucial to winning the presidential election, to tour a ventilator factory and delivered the commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

While the Trump campaign remains confined to online forums and social media, the president's selected location of Arizona underscores the state's importance in November. All eyes are on GOP Sen. Martha McSally, who was appointed to the seat vacated by the death of veteran Sen. John McCain. McSally is in a tight race with retired astronaut Mark Kelly, the husband of former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Trump is also trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden by more than 4 percentage points in the former Republican stronghold, according to RealClearPolitics.

Josh Schwerin – a senior strategist with Priorities USA Action, a political action committee that supports Democratic candidates – said Trump is only worried about his re-election prospects as he heads to Arizona.

"A large majority of the country agrees that we need to stay shut down until it's safe to reopen, but Trump is panicking about his poll numbers so he's clearly decided to put his own political interests ahead of the health of the citizens he was elected to represent," he said.

Schwerin added: "Trump's only concern has ever been Trump, but traveling with a massive presidential entourage in the middle of a pandemic isn't just selfish, it's dangerous."

Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg said Trump appears to be struggling in a key part of Arizona: Maricopa County, a once reliably Republican area that includes Phoenix, Mesa, Chandler, Tempe, Scottsdale and other suburban communities.

In a recent column, Rothenberg wrote: "Arizona's results from Maricopa may well determine who sits in the White House for the next four years. And that is not good news for Trump."

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Coronavirus in USA: Live News - The New York Times

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:36 AM PDT

Video player loading — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York provided the state's latest coronavirus statistics and new details about how the economy can reopen.CreditCredit...Mike Segar/Reuters

Here's what you need to know:

3.8 million more workers filed for unemployment benefits last week. That's probably an undercount.

The figures announced Thursday by the Labor Department bring the number of workers joining the official jobless ranks in the last six weeks to more than 30 million, and underscore just how dire economic conditions remain.

Many state agencies still find themselves overwhelmed by the flood of claims, leaving perhaps millions with dwindling resources to pay the rent or put food on the table.

30,307,000

Claims were filed in

the last six weeks

Initial jobless claims, per week

Seasonally adjusted

30,307,000

Claims were filed in

the last six weeks

Initial jobless claims, per week

Seasonally adjusted

30,307,000

Claims were filed in

the last six weeks

Initial jobless claims, per week

Seasonally adjusted

30,307,000

Claims were filed in

the last six weeks

Initial jobless claims, per week

Seasonally adjusted

If anything, the job losses may be far worse than government figures indicate, according to many economists. A study by the Economic Policy Institute found that roughly 50 percent more people than counted as filing claims in a recent four-week period may have qualified for benefits but were stymied in applying or didn't even try because they found the process too formidable.

"The problem is even bigger than the data suggest," said Elise Gould, a senior economist with the institute, a left-leaning research group. "We're undercounting the economic pain."

As Emily Badger and Alicia Parlapiano reported, systems that were devised to treat each unemployment case as potentially fraudulent are now rushing to deal with millions of newly unemployed people.

The state unemployment systems that were supposed to help millions of jobless workers were full of boxes to check and mandates to meet that couldn't possibly apply in a pandemic.

States required workers to document their job searches, weekly; to register with employment services, in person; to take a wait period before their first check, up to 10 days.

Such requirements increased in the years following the Great Recession, as many states moved to tighten access to or reduce unemployment benefits. With them, most states cut the share of jobless workers they helped.

Now these requirements have been getting in the way. Effectively, many states have been trying to scale up aid with systems built to keep claims low.

Percentage of unemployed people who received benefits

Since 2007, the share of unemployed workers receiving benefits has dropped in all but seven states. In the bottom two states, North Carolina and Florida, this recipiency rate has fallen significantly.Source: Department of Labor·The New York Times

Stocks dip as jobless claims rack up.

U.S. stocks followed European markets on Thursday, dipping as investors considered data revealing a sharp contraction in the eurozone economy and another surge of jobless claims in the United States.

The S&P 500 was down more than 1 percent on Thursday afternoon. European markets fell about 2 percent after a rally in Asia.

Adding to the bleak economic news, the Commerce Department reported on Thursday that consumer spending in March fell by 7.5 percent from February's level, a stunning decline that helps explain why the overall economy is so weak. Consumer activity is responsible for two-thirds of the country's economic performance.

The data came a day after the government said U.S. gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced in the economy, fell at a 4.8 percent annual rate in the first quarter of the year, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. That is the first decline since 2014, and the worst quarterly contraction since the country was in a deep recession more than a decade ago.

On Wednesday, the S&P 500 had gained nearly 3 percent, lifted by news that the drugmaker Gilead Science had seen early results that its experimental drug remdesivir could speed recovery in patients infected with the coronavirus. A steady climb has lifted the S&P 500 by more than 31 percent since its March 23 low.

Federal social-distancing guidelines are set to expire today as some states continue to reopen.

The Coney Island boardwalk on Wednesday. — Credit...Juan Arredondo for The New York Times

Millions more Americans will soon be able to sit down to eat at restaurants, browse in person at retail stores or make appointments to get their hair cut, as a number of states move toward reopening on Thursday, despite warnings from public health experts.

Governors in several states — including Alabama, Maine, Tennessee and Texas — plan to allow stay-at-home orders to expire on Thursday, paving the way for certain businesses to reopen and marking the end of an unparalleled month in which an astonishing nine in 10 residents in the United States were told to stay at home to help stop the spread of the virus.

Federal guidelines encouraging people to curtail nearly all public activities are also poised to expire Thursday after President Trump indicated he did not intend to extend them.

"They'll be fading out, because now the governors are doing it," Mr. Trump told reporters on Wednesday, referring to the restrictions.

More restrictions will be lifted on Friday as additional states, including Iowa, North Dakota and Wyoming, ease their rules.

The latest reopenings represent a pivotal moment in America's response to the virus, even as the number of deaths from the virus in the United States has surged past 60,000. As of Friday, more than a dozen states will have begun to partially reopen their economies and restart public life, raising concerns among health experts about another spike in cases that may not be detected in official numbers for two weeks.

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has warned that premature action by states could lead to "a rebound to get us right back in the same boat that we were in a few weeks ago."

Texas is expected to take one of the most expansive actions on Friday, allowing retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters and malls to reopen and operate at 25 percent capacity. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, lifted his stay at home order after less than a month, citing the state's expanded testing, stock of protective equipment and a high number of coronavirus recoveries.

The pace of reopening has created a divided America, along both political and geographical lines. Many states in the South with Republican governors were among the first to partially reopen, including Georgia, Oklahoma and South Carolina, which paved the way last week. Also beginning to reopen are less dense states, including Alaska and Montana. Several of the nation's most populous states, including California, Michigan, New York and Illinois, remain on extended lockdown.

Trump officials are said to have pushed spies to hunt for unproven links between the virus and a lab in Wuhan.

Senior Trump administration officials have pushed American spy agencies to hunt for evidence to support an unsubstantiated theory that a government laboratory in Wuhan, China, was the origin of the outbreak, according to current and former American officials. The effort comes as Mr. Trump escalates a public campaign to blame China for the pandemic.

Most intelligence agencies remain skeptical that conclusive evidence of a link to a lab can be found, and scientists who have studied the genetics of the coronavirus say that the overwhelming probability is that it leapt from animal to human in a nonlaboratory setting, as was the case with H.I.V., Ebola and SARS.

Reporting for The New York Times, Mark Mazzetti, Julian E. Barnes, Edward Wong and Adam Goldman investigate how scientists, spies and government officials have wrestled for months with varying theories about how the outbreak began. Many agree on the importance of determining the genesis of the pandemic. In government and academia, however, experts have ruled out the notion that it was concocted as a bioweapon. And they agree that the new pathogen began as a bat virus that evolved naturally, probably in another mammal, to become adept at infecting and killing humans.

A few veteran national security experts have pointed to a history of lab accidents infecting researchers to suggest it might have happened in this case, but many scientists have dismissed such theories.

California's governor may order all beaches closed after large weekend crowds.

Amid growing outcry over pictures of packed California beaches, Gov. Gavin Newsom is preparing to order all beaches in the state closed beginning on Friday, according to a memo sent to police chiefs in the state that was obtained by local news media. Some county governments have kept their beaches open while others have restricted access.

The orders could not be confirmed on Thursday morning and the sheriffs of two coastal counties, Bill Brown of Santa Barbara, and Matt Kendall of Mendocino, said they had not received any directives from the governor.

The move would follow pleas by Mr. Newsom for Californians to slow the spread of the virus by staying home, despite the temptations of seawater and sunny weather. Photographs of umbrellas and surfers dotting the shoreline of some beaches last weekend showed that many residents had not heeded his requests.

A copy of a memo from the California Police Chiefs Association outlining the governor's decision was published by Fox Los Angeles. Eric Nuñez, the association's president, confirmed to The Associated Press that it had been sent to city police chiefs to give them time to prepare for the beach closings.

The flurry of beachgoers last weekend prompted some local governments to take action.

Santa Cruz County in Northern California on Wednesday said it was closing beaches entirely between the hours of 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., beginning this weekend, and that they would only be open for "recreational activities to promote physical and mental health" outside of that window. Officials there said the order was a direct result of the "overwhelming weekend beach crowds."

"Despite warnings against traveling to Santa Cruz County for beach access and against congregating on beaches, local law enforcement spent the weekend responding to numerous issues all along our coastline," Sheriff Jim Hart of Santa Cruz County said in a statement. "Unfortunately, these actions are necessary to protect the health and welfare of our most vulnerable residents."

N.Y.C. subway service will halt between 1 and 5 a.m. so trains can be disinfected.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said Thursday that the New York City subway would halt service from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. each night so trains could be disinfected.

The policy will go into effect next Wednesday, May 6, the governor said, and will interrupt service on one of the few subways in the world that runs around the clock.

"This is as ambitious as anything we've ever undertaken," the governor said.

He said that shuttle buses, dollar vans and even for-hire vehicles would provide what he called an "essential connector" during those hours to transport essential workers who needed to get to their jobs.

The announcement comes after days of building tension over homeless people using subway trains as an alternative form of shelter and creating what many felt were unsanitary conditions on trains. On Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo, who effectively controls the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs the transit system, had declared the situation "disgusting."

The governor said Thursday that Mayor Bill de Blasio would help lead the effort to coordinate transportation during the nightly halt and praised the mayor for his cooperation.

"It's a heck of an undertaking by the mayor and I applaud him for his ambition here in stepping up and taking this on," Mr. Cuomo said.

Mr. de Blasio, appearing at the briefing, said that the effort would be a way to help homeless people, whose life on the subways he called "an unacceptable reality."

The M.T.A. had rolled out new measures to address the use of the subway by the homeless on Wednesday.

Here are some other highlights from the governor's morning briefing:

306 more people died of the virus in the state, down from 330 reported on Wednesday and the lowest number since March 30.
The number of new hospital admissions for virus patients declined, after it ticked up slightly on Wednesday.
The number of virus patients in hospitals dropped for the 17th day in a row and is now below 12,000 — down nearly 40 percent from mid-April, when there were nearly 19,000 hospitalized patients.

Mr. Cuomo also gave more details on the state's planned effort to test and trace the virus, saying that the "massive" effort would require hiring between 6,400 and 17,000 contact tracers, depending on the virus's spread.

"When social distancing is relaxed, contract tracing is our best hope for isolating the virus when it appears and keeping it isolated," said Michael R. Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, who appeared by video at the governor's Thursday briefing and who has volunteered to lead the effort.

Doctors encourage people to track virus symptoms as more people arrive at hospitals with pneumonia.

As more doctors are seeing patients arriving at the hospital with an insidious form of pneumonia, tracking symptoms and paying special attention as the illness nears its second week has taken on new urgency.

Tara Parker-Pope, the founding editor of Well, writes:

Marking your calendar at the first sign of illness, and tracking your fever and oxygen levels, are important steps in monitoring a coronavirus infection. Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has been unpredictable in the range of symptoms it can cause. But when it turns serious, it often follows a consistent pattern.

While most patients recover in about a week, a significant minority of patients enter "a very nasty second wave" of illness, said Dr. Ilan Schwartz, assistant professor of infectious disease at the University of Alberta. "After the initial symptoms, things plateau and maybe even improve a little bit, and then there is a secondary worsening."

While every patient is different, doctors say that days five through 10 of the illness are often the most worrisome time for respiratory complications of Covid-19, particularly for older patients and those with underlying conditions like high blood pressure, obesity or diabetes. Younger patients who develop complications may begin struggling a little later, as late as days 10 to 12. Most people who reach day 14 without any worrying symptoms (other than feeling miserable and fatigued) are likely to be on the road to recovery.

The best way to monitor your health during this time is to use a pulse oximeter, a small device that clips on your finger and measures your blood oxygen levels. (There are phone-based apps meant to do this, but they have tested poorly) The normal oxygen saturation range is about 96 to 99 percent. If your blood oxygen reading drops to 92 percent, it's time to call a doctor.

Black Georgians have been especially vulnerable to the virus, the C.D.C. finds.

As Georgia reopens many businesses over objections from Mr. Trump and others, a new study illustrates the high rates of virus infection among black people in the state.

The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that more than four-fifths of the state's hospitalized virus patients were black, though they were not more likely than other groups to die from the disease or to require a ventilator.

"That is a very high rate of infections," said Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick, a cancer surgeon and the president of Howard University, who was not involved in the C.D.C. report. He said the high percentage of black people in the study likely reflects the patients' occupations.

The sample of patients in the C.D.C. study was taken from eight hospitals in Georgia, including seven in metropolitan Atlanta and one in southern Georgia. Slightly more than half of Atlanta residents are African-American, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The study appeared against the backdrop of a debate over whether Georgia has been premature to ease restrictions on businesses. On Friday, Gov. Brian Kemp allowed hair and nail salons, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors to open again. On Monday, restaurants were permitted to resume dine-in service. Georgia's stay-at-home order is scheduled to end on Thursday.

Groups fighting virus restrictions could have a powerful new ally: the Justice Department.

A network of conservative leaders, donors and organizations has launched a legal onslaught against state and local restrictions intended to slow the spread of the virus, pushing to allow churches to hold services, businesses to reopen and people to be able to visit with family and friends.

They have been emboldened in recent days by increasing signs of support from a powerful ally: the Justice Department.

Attorney General William P. Barr issued a memorandum this week directing two of his department's top lawyers to lead an effort with other federal agencies to monitor state and local policies "and, if necessary, take action to correct" those that "could be violating the constitutional rights and civil liberties of individual citizens."

Though the Justice Department has so far weighed in formally on only one case — a lawsuit by a Baptist church in Greenville, Miss. — the new directive reinforced the message that court challenges to state and local restrictions by Mr. Trump's allies could get a favorable viewing, and potential support, from the administration.

The guidance raises the prospect that the Trump administration could side with supportive groups in legal challenges against elected state and local leaders who enacted policies that were intended to stave off the spread of the virus. Public health officials fear the virus's spread could be accelerated by premature lifting of restrictions.

L.A.'s mayor says all residents can now get tested.

Mayor Eric M. Garcetti of Los Angeles said on Wednesday evening that any city and county resident who wanted a virus test can get one, whether or not they were showing symptoms, making Los Angeles the "first major city in America" to offer free coronavirus testing to all residents.

Priority will still be given to health care employees, other workers who interact with the public and people with symptoms, but asymptomatic residents will also be able to get tests.

"So, if you think you might have Covid-19, want the reassurance that you don't or you've been around people that you have seen with symptoms, get a test," the mayor said. "We can do it."

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California had outlined this week how the state might gradually reopen, and Mr. Garcetti said the availability of testing was a "really important step to prepare for other steps forward."

It is unclear how many people will sign up to be tested or how long they will have to wait. Just over six million people have been tested in the United States, including about 603,000 in California, according to Johns Hopkins University data. More than 10 million people live in Los Angeles County, according to the Census Bureau.

In response to a reporter's question about how the city would manage to test so many people, Mr. Garcetti said the city had tests left over each day and was confident in its ability to test any resident who wanted it, including those who want to get tested multiple times over the course of several weeks or months.

Mr. Garcetti said the testing would be carried out at 34 sites in the city that have the capacity to test at least 18,000 people each day. At least 140,000 people have been tested at those sites in the past month, he said.

Should the virus mean straight A's for every student?

School districts across the country have adapted in myriad ways as the very model of teaching and learning has been transformed. Now another fundamental part of American education is being transformed: the report card.

In many cities and towns, new grading systems for this semester have been created, driven by concern for students who face hardship from the virus and its economic fallout. Some districts have dropped letter grades altogether, while others are guaranteeing A's in most cases, or ensuring that students' performance during the pandemic will not count against them.

But there are places where administrators have encountered stiff resistance to the idea of dropping grades, even temporarily. Some parents and students are concerned about the ability of high achievers to compete in selective college admissions, while others worry that eschewing grades means students will have less incentive to participate in remote learning.

The debate been more particularly passionate in the San Mateo Union High School District, south of San Francisco. It is a place that epitomizes the socioeconomic divides that have always characterized American education, with the children of tech executives attending class alongside the children of undocumented gardeners and office cleaners.

An April 16 school board meeting to address grading drew more than 500 people. In public comments delivered via Zoom, many parents and students argued that grades were crucial during the college admissions process. One student said grades provide "compensation and incentive for people to work hard."

Without letter grades, asked another student, "What motivation do we have to continue working for the end of the school year?"

A new affliction for restaurant owners: burglars.

The pandemic has hit small and independent restaurants hard, forcing owners to shutter dining rooms and lay off employees. But the shutdowns have done more than imperil the restaurants' financial health — they have made the buildings themselves tempting targets for burglars emboldened by the quiet streets and deserted spaces.

Across the country, closed restaurants have been invaded by thieves who seem especially drawn to well-stocked liquor cabinets, and iPads and other equipment.

"It's the perfect storm," said Kam Razavi, an owner of a California restaurant who watched from his phone as security cameras recorded a burglar helping himself to the best bottles in the bar. "They know everybody is probably at home with a loaded gun. They're not going to go rob homes. They're going to go to closed businesses."

When his restaurant was broken into in early April, Mr. Razavi had already laid off most of his 75 or so employees, and was uncertain whether he would ever reopen. Now, he is out $5,000 from stolen alcohol, a broken door and cleanup costs.

Most restaurant owners who have had burglaries expect their insurance companies to cover at least a portion of the damage, though the pandemic has created backlogs for claims, delaying payments in some cases.

Some burglars haven't gotten far. Shortly after the lockdown in New York, a would-be thief broke into Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, in Harlem, and put a few half-empty bottles of alcohol into a bag. When he came upstairs from the basement, police officers were waiting for him.

Need help figuring out the balance between your screens and your life?

Phones and computers are keeping us tethered to the outside world during the pandemic. But being thoughtful about your use of screens can help you emerge from this crisis empowered and in control, and with more self-awareness.

Follow updates on the pandemic from our team of international correspondents.

South Korea on Thursday reported that for the first time since the virus's Feb. 29 peak, it had no new domestic cases and just four cases among people who came in from outside the country.

That progress has been mirrored in Hong Kong, which on Thursday reported that there had been no new cases in the semiautonomous Chinese territory for five straight days.

Reporting was contributed by Alan Blinder, Eileen Sullivan, Sarah Mervosh, Lisa Lerer, Kenneth P. Vogel, Karen Barrow, Dana Goldstein, Tariro Mzezewa, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Matt Phillips, Brad Plumer, David Waldstein, Alan Feuer, Ashley Southall, Amelia Nierenberg, David Yaffe-Bellany, Michael Gold, Marc Santora, Emily Badger, Alicia Parlapiano and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs.

US coronavirus cases surpass 1 million and the death toll is greater than US losses in Vietnam War - CNN

Posted: 28 Apr 2020 07:16 PM PDT

[unable to retrieve full-text content]US coronavirus cases surpass 1 million and the death toll is greater than US losses in Vietnam War CNN

Jobless claims climb to 30 million in six weeks as COVID-19 layoffs continue to rise - USA TODAY

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 06:15 AM PDT

Unemployment in the US is swelling to catastrophic numbers. Tony Lamperti was laid off from his bartender and water jobs in Houston, but doesn't qualify for unemployment in Texas. He's found temporary part-time jobs for the time being. (April 23) AP Domestic

About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks, a grim marker revealing how badly the coronavirus pandemic has crippled the U.S. economy.

Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time high of 6.86 million applications in late March. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country.

While the number of claims continues to slide, the tally is still monumental, and is building toward a projected unemployment rate of 16.4% in May that would be the highest since the Great Depression, according to Morgan Stanley.

By mid-April, more claims had been filed over four weeks than there were jobs created in the wake of the economic downturn of 2008.

"The COVID-19 crisis has made us accustomed and de-sensitized to previously unthinkable phenomena, but today marks a tough reality for our country and for American workers,'' Andrew Stettner, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, said in a statement. "The real question now is how many of these millions of workers flooding into state unemployment systems make it out to the other side with a payment."

The latest round of claims is a prelude to next week's monthly jobs report which will "likely show a historic drop of nearly 20 million jobs and an unemployment rate in the high teens,'' according to Contingent Macro Research.

The nation's economy stuttered to a near halt in March, as travel slowed, stores closed, and most residents were told to stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Many people applying for unemployment insurance likely lost work weeks ago but were only recently able to file claims because state systems have been bogged down or even immobilized by the unprecedented number of applications.

But layoffs and furloughs are also continuing, as businesses struggle amid lingering shutdowns and local and state governments consider job cuts as tax revenue shrinks.

The wait for money: No income and number 88,000 in line: This is what it's like to be unemployed in America

Government workers could be next to lose jobs: State, city workers could be next wave of layoffs as tax revenue dries up amid COVID-19

"We hoped claims would decay more quickly after the initial wave on the grounds that the consumer-facing businesses forced to shut by the lock downs could close only once,'' Pantheon Macroeconomics said in a note. "The continued wave of multi-million losses suggests that supply chains and business services firms are now laying off large numbers of people too."

And that will take an unprecedented toll, some economists say.

"Based on recent (unemployment insurance) claims and the expectation for a near-complete freeze in hiring, it is not unrealistic to think that the economy may lose 20 million jobs or more in April alone,'' Dante DeAntonio, an economist at Moody's Analytics, wrote in a note to clients. "It is becoming clear that estimated employment losses over the last month will be the largest in history, by a long shot.''

While new claims are expected to continue to slow, Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a research note that it thinks job losses won't dip below 1 million until mid-June. Before the pandemic, roughly 215,000 claims were being filed per week.

Morgan Stanley projects that the average jobless rate will hover at 15.7% during the second quarter, but predicts the U.S. will experience a 16.4% unemployment rate in May, "higher than any point since the Great Depression.''

Jobless claims may also continue to grow because the $2.2 trillion federal emergency stimulus package approved in March expanded the number of people who can receive unemployment benefits, including those who've gone from full-time to part-time work.

"It's imperative that states move through these claims and deliver payments as efficiently as possible,'' Stettner says, "especially for the millions of gig workers and college students who will file for new pandemic unemployment assistance that is just now being made available.''

Follow Charisse Jones on Twitter @charissejones

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Euro zone economy sinks; Spain's daily coronavirus deaths at lowest tally in nearly 6 weeks - CNBC

Posted: 30 Apr 2020 04:39 AM PDT

The coverage on this live blog has ended — but for up-to-the-minute coverage on the coronavirus, visit the live blog from CNBC's U.S. team.

Global cases: More than 3.19 million
Global deaths: Over 227,700
Most cases reported: United States (over 1 million), Spain (236,899), Italy (203,591), France (166,543), and United Kingdom (166,441).

The data above was compiled by Johns Hopkins University as of 3:46 p.m. Beijing time.

All times below are in Beijing time.

6:53 pm: UK leader Boris Johnson chairs cabinet meeting as pressure mounts over UK exit strategy

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has led a meeting of his top ministers on Thursday to discuss how to ease the country's lockdown, as pressure rises on the government to announce how it will ease restrictions.

The pressure to reopen the economy also comes despite a mounting death toll of over 26,000 fatalities that now puts the U.K. in the unenviable position of having the second highest death toll in Europe, after Spain.

Johnson is expected to lead the U.K. government's daily press conference on Thursday. He is back to work after recovering from a serious coronavirus infection, and after becoming a father for the sixth time on Wednesday. He is expected to postpone his paternity leave until later in the year. — Holly Ellyatt

6:44 pm: Japan preparing to extend coronavirus emergency for about a month, sources say

Japan is preparing to extend its state of emergency due to the coronavirus for about a month, government sources told Reuters on Thursday. It was originally set to end on May 6.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament that he would consult infectious disease experts on whether to extend the emergency, which he declared on April 7 for seven prefectures including Tokyo. The meeting will take place on Friday, the economy minister said. — Holly Ellyatt

5:32 pm: Spain's coronavirus daily death toll falls to lowest tally in nearly six weeks

The number of coronavirus-related deaths in Spain has fallen to 268, its health ministry said Thursday, marking the lowest tally in nearly six weeks, Reuters reported.

The total number of deaths has risen to 24,543 on Thursday, up from 24,275 on the previous day, the ministry said. The total number of cases in Spain now stands at 213,435, up 1,309 from the previous day. — Holly Ellyatt

5:15 pm: Sweden had no lockdown but the economic damage from the virus could be just as bad

Sweden has attracted global attention for not imposing a full lockdown, as seen in most of Europe, to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Nonetheless, data released from the country's central bank and a leading Swedish think tank show that the economy will be just as badly hit as its European neighbors.

Sweden's central bank, the Riksbank, gave two possible scenarios for the economic outlook in 2020, which it said "depend on how long the spread of infection continues and on how long the restrictions implemented to slow it down are in place." Both possible scenarios are bleak.

In the first scenario, gross domestic product contracts by 6.9% in 2020 before rebounding to grow 4.6% in 2021. In a more negative prediction, GDP could contract by 9.7% and a recovery could be slower with the economy growing 1.7% in 2021.

In both predictions, unemployment will rise and could reach 10.1% in 2020 in the worst case scenario, up from 7.2% currently. — Holly Ellyatt

5:00 pm: Euro zone GDP contracts by a record 3.8% in the first quarter

The euro zone economy contracted by 3.8% in the first quarter, compared to the last three months of 2019, as the coronavirus pandemic severely impacted business activity in the region.

The 19-member euro area, which shares the single currency, has one of the hardest hit by Covid-19. Germany, France, Spain and Italy — the four largest euro economies — are among the top six countries worldwide with the highest number of infections. The strict lockdown measures in most of the euro area have meant that all non-essential services have been closed for several weeks.

Italy was the first country to close with a nationwide lockdown imposed from March 10, suggesting that second-quarter data will likely be much worse than Thursday's figures. — Silvia Amaro

An automobile assembly line worker wears a protective face mask as Volkswagen AG (VW) restart production at their headquarter factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Monday, April 27, 2020. Volkswagen is restarting output at its Wolfsburg car plant, the worlds biggest, with a labor leaders warning that political fallout from the coronavirus pandemic could be more harmful than production disruptions.

Bloomberg

4:30 pm: UK researchers should know by July if coronavirus vaccine is effective

The U.K. will know by July whether its Covid-19 vaccine is effective, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Thursday.

The company announced Thursday that it had partnered with Oxford University to help develop and distribute the vaccine being researched by the Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group.

Under the agreement, AstraZeneca would be responsible for the worldwide manufacturing and supply of Oxford's vaccine, which entered phase one clinical trials last week. — Chloe Taylor

4:20 pm: The 'R' rate is the new coronavirus buzzword

3:34 pm: Singapore preliminarily confirms 528 new cases

Singapore's health ministry preliminarily confirmed 528 new cases of infection, with most of them linked to clusters in foreign worker dormitories. The city-state has confirmed more than 16,000 cases so far, and 14 have died from Covid-19.

Majority of those who have been infected are foreign workers who are typically men from other Asian countries working in the construction and other labor-intensive sectors.— Saheli Roy Choudhury

2:56 pm: Singapore minister says 5G rollout still on track despite economic challenges

Singapore remains on track to roll out nationwide 5G services by 2025 despite the current economic uncertainties posed by the coronavirus pandemic, the country's communications and information minister S. Iswaran said.

Iswaran told reporters at a briefing that 5G is an important investment in Singapore's digital infrastructure for the future.

The country's telecommunication industry regulator on Wednesday announced the two provisional winners who will build Singapore's nationwide 5G networks: Singapore Telecommunications and a joint venture between telcos Starhub and M1.

Singapore's economy is facing a recession this year due to the Covid-19 crisis and the central bank this week said there's "significant uncertainty" over the depth and duration of the contraction. — Saheli Roy Choudhury

2.24 pm: California likely to shut down all beaches and state parks from May 1

California is likely to shut down all beaches and state parks from May 1, according to a letter sent to state police chiefs and acquired by NBC Los Angeles.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to make the announcement on Thursday. — Saheli Roy Choudhury

12:29 pm: Germany adds 1,478 new cases and 173 additional deaths

Germany reported 1,478 new cases and 173 additional deaths, according to the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the federal government agency responsible for disease control and prevention.

There are 159,119 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country as well as 6,288 deaths in total. The German death toll is far lower than those seen in other European nations. Around 123,500 people are said to have recovered from the illness.

Numbers reported by the RKI are slightly lower than data from Johns Hopkins University because the agency updates its figures every 24 hours.

Germany, like Spain, Italy and a handful of other European countries, has tentatively started to lift its lockdown measures by allowing smaller retail stores to re-open as long as hygiene and social-distancing measures are maintained. Larger car dealerships, bike shops and book shops have also been allowed to open their doors. — Saheli Roy Choudhury

12:13 pm: Energy demand set to fall the most on record this year amid coronavirus pandemic

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said Thursday that it expects global energy demand to plunge this year amid the Covid-19 pandemic, in what the Paris-based agency called the biggest shock since World War II.

With roughly 4.2 billion people around the world subject to some form of lockdown in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the IEA is forecasting a 6% drop in energy demand for the year. In absolute terms, this is the largest on record. Percentage-wise, it's the steepest decline in 70 years.

The demand hit from the pandemic is expected to be seven times greater than the decline in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008.

"In absolute terms, the decline is unprecedented – the equivalent of losing the entire energy demand of India, the world's third largest energy consumer," the agency's Global Energy Report said. — Pippa Stevens

11:40 am: Senior Chinese official challenges Trump over coronavirus response, says US wasted weeks

A senior Chinese government official challenged President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, accusing him of wasting weeks after the threat posed by the virus first became apparent.

In a wide-ranging interview with NBC News Executive Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng rejected claims that the country had covered up the initial outbreak or that it should be held financially liable for COVID-19. Instead, he termed the virus a "natural disaster" and called for greater cooperation and an end to accusations.

"On Jan. 23 when Wuhan went under lockdown, the United States reported only one confirmed case, but on March 13 when President Trump announced a national emergency, the United States reported over 1,600 confirmed cases," Le said. "In this interval of 50 days, what was the U.S. government doing? Where have those 50 days gone?" — NBC News

10:45 am: Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi resumes services in Wuhan

China's Didi is resuming all ride-hailing services, including taxis and private cars, in Wuhan where the outbreak first started.

The firm said it will continue to carry out "rigorous" hygiene practices and other protective measures. "Nevertheless, this moment marks a new beginning as we turn to support the full discovery of urban life and transportation in the country," it said in a statement.

Taxis line up for passengers outside the Hankou Railway Station in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province Wednesday, April 08, 2020, after 76 days of lockdown due to Covid-19.

Barcroft Media | Getty Images

Didi added that it will also be stopping volunteer transportation services for healthcare workers, which it started after the lockdown in China began. — Weizhen Tan

10:00 am: South Korea reports no new domestic cases for first time since February peak

South Korea reported no locally transmitted cases for the first time since its Feb. 29 peak, according to Reuters. There were still four new infections, all attributed to travelers from overseas, according to the Korea Centers for Disease control and Prevention.

That took the country's total to 10,765. The death toll rose by one, with the total number of fatalities at 247. South Korea has been widely praised for its efforts successfully containing the outbreak, after it instituted widespread testing and intensive contact tracing. — Weizhen Tan

9:25 am: China says its manufacturing activity expanded slightly in April as lockdowns ease

China said manufacturing activity in the country expanded slightly in April as lockdowns and movement restrictions to contain the coronavirus began to ease.

The official manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index came in at 50.8 for the month of April, as compared to 52.0 in March. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected official manufacturing PMI to come in at 51.0 in April. PMI readings above 50 indicate expansion, while those below that level signal contraction.

In February, the official PMI hit a record low of 35.7 as China was hit by the coronavirus outbreak. — Huileng Tan

9:20 am: China reports 4 new cases, no deaths

China reported four new cases as of April 29, according to its National Health Commission (NHC). All 4 cases were attributed to travelers coming from overseas. That takes the country's total to 82,862 cases, according to government data.

There were no new deaths, with total fatalities remaining at 4,633, according to the NHC.

Separately, there were 33 new asymptomatic cases, where people tested positive for the virus but did not show any symptoms. That brings its number of asymptomatic cases currently under medical observation to 998, the NHC said. — Weizhen Tan

9:05 am: Los Angeles becomes first major US city to offer free coronavirus testing for all residents

Los Angeles is the first city in the United States to offer coronavirus testing for anyone regardless of whether they have symptoms, Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a press conference on Wednesday. But those with symptoms will have the first priority, he added.

Los Angeles has the capacity to conduct roughly 9% of all tests in America, he told reporters.

Across the country, states say that Covid-19 testing is increasing but there still aren't sufficient tests available. As the United States starts to re-open, medical experts say that testing will need to pickup speed, alongside contact tracing and other efforts to quickly isolate those who might be contagious before they can spread the virus to others. — Christina Farr

8:19 am: Singapore's DBS bank posts 29% fall in first-quarter net profit

Southeast Asia's largest bank, DBS, said it set aside 1.09 billion Singapore dollars ($772.5 million) to cover potential losses from the coronavirus pandemic — which resulted in a 29% year-over-year fall in net profit in the first quarter.

DBS said two-thirds of the money it set aside — around 703 million Singapore dollars ($498.2 million) — were for "general allowances to anticipate a deeper and more prolonged economic impact from the pandemic."

The remaining amount of 383 million Singapore dollars ($271.4 million) was mainly "for new exposures recognised as non-performing during the quarter."

The Singaporean bank's net profit fell to 1.17 billion Singapore dollars ($829.2 million) in January-March this year, down from 1.65 billion Singapore dollars ($1.17 billion) in the same period last year. — Yen Nee Lee

8:08 am: Australia says outbreak in Tasmania linked to cruise ship

Australia said a coronavirus outbreak in the state of Tasmania likely originated from the Ruby Princess cruise ship, according to a government report published Thursday, Reuters reported.

The Ruby Princess cruise, which is owned by a unit of Carnival Corp, is Australia's largest source of infections as some 2,700 people were allowed to leave the ship when in docked in Sydney last month, according to Reuters. That was despite some people showing symptoms of Covid-19.

Tasmania recorded 12 deaths from the virus and all but two were linked to the cruise ship, Reuters reported.

The health ministry said as of 6 a.m. local time on Thursday, there have been 6,746 confirmed cases and 90 people have died in Australia. Tasmania has 220 confirmed cases. — Saheli Roy Choudhury

7:40 am: US cases top 1 million, global death toll above 227,000

More than 3.1 million people have been infected by the coronavirus around the world and over 227,000 people have died from the respiratory disease Covid-19, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

The United States reported the most number of cases, with over 1 million people infected and more than 60,800 have died, according to Hopkins data.

Spain has more than 236,800 cases while Italy has over 203,500 cases. Both France and the United Kingdom reported more than 166,000 cases each and Germany had over 161,000 cases.

The virus outbreak was reported in China's Hubei province late last year before it spread rapidly to all parts of the world in just four months. — Saheli Roy Choudhury

All times below are in Eastern time.

6:17 pm: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg warns against reopening public spaces too soon

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has warned that reopening public spaces too soon "almost guarantees" continued coronavirus outbreaks and economic fallout.

"While there are massive societal costs from the current shelter-in-place restrictions, I worry that reopening certain places too quickly before inaction rates have been reduced to very minimal levels will almost guarantee future outbreaks and worsen longer-term health and economic outcomes," Zuckerberg said on the company's first quarter earnings call.

"The impact on our business has been significant, and I remain very concerned that this health emergency and therefore the economic fallout will last longer than people are currently anticipating," Zuckerberg added.

Zuckerberg's comments come as some states mull whether to reopen businesses that the Covid-19 pandemic forced shut. —Jessica Bursztynsky

5:54 pm: Trump wants FDA to move 'as quickly as they can' on remdesivir approval

President Donald Trump said he wants the Food and Drug Administration to move "as quickly as they can" to approve Gilead Sciences' antiviral drug remdesivir as a treatment for the coronavirus.

"We would like to see very quick approvals, especially with things that work," he said at a roundtable at the White House with business executives Wednesday evening.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards (D-LA) in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on April 29, 2020.

Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images