The COVID-19 Pandemic: Almost 10 Million Americans Have Filed for Unemployment; A Strong Case for Wearing Masks; and More

COVID-19 is well on pace to exceed 1 million confirmed worldwide cases before the weekend. As this article goes to publish, Worldometer currently reports over 964,000 world cases and over 49,000 deaths.

The foreign countries most affected by COVID-19 remain:

• Italy: 110,574 confirmed cases; 13,155 deaths (most of any country).
• Spain: 110,238 confirmed cases; 10,003 deaths.
• China: 81,589 confirmed cases; 3,318 deaths.
• Germany: 81,728 confirmed cases; 997 deaths.
• France: 56,989 confirmed cases; 4,032 deaths.
• Iran: 50,468 confirmed cases; 3,160 deaths.
• UK: 33,718 confirmed cases; 2,921 deaths.
• Switzerland: 18,267 confirmed cases; 505 deaths.

National News:

Thursday, April 2, 2020

US Cases Continue to Rise; Death Toll Hits 5,000

COVID-19 cases in the US continue to spike at frightening rates and currently stand at 216,826 confirmed cases (most of any country) and now the death toll has spiked past 5,000.

New York remains the epicenter for US cases with 92,381 (2,373 deaths). To put that into perspective, New York alone has more cases than any country except for Italy and China. Neighboring New Jersey has seen a surge in confirmed cases and now sits at 22,255 confirmed cases and 355 deaths, well above California, which has 9,937 cases and 215 deaths. Michigan remains the forth most affected state with 9,334 cases and 337 deaths.

The following states outside the top four have over 3,000 confirmed cases:

• Florida: 8,010 confirmed cases; 128 deaths.
• Massachusetts: 7,738 confirmed cases; 122 deaths.
• Illinois: 7,016 confirmed cases; 142 deaths.
• Louisiana: 6,424 confirmed cases; 273 deaths.
• Pennsylvania: 6,002 confirmed cases; 74 deaths.
• Washington: 5,984 confirmed cases; 254 deaths.
• Georgia: 5,984 confirmed cases; 163 deaths.
• Texas: 4,525 confirmed cases; 68 deaths.
• Connecticut: 3,557 confirmed cases; 85 deaths.
• Colorado: 3,342 confirmed cases; 80 deaths.
• Tennessee: 3,045 confirmed cases; 26 deaths.
• Indiana: 3,039 confirmed cases; 78 deaths.

Coronavirus is Decimating the US Job Market

The spread of COVID-19 has had an astronomically dire effect on the US job market as 6.6 million US workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on March 28, meaning that nearly 10 million jobless claims have been made in the last two weeks. That equates to a surge of more than 3,000% since early March, with economists characterizing the increase as Economists characterized the increase as “monstrous,” “stunningly awful,” and “a portrait of disaster.” Citi economist wrote in a note that: “Further job loss expected in coming weeks is very likely to push unemployment above 10%, even taking account of a potential steep decline in the labor force participation rate, as some displaced workers are neither furloughed nor looking for work.”

Democrats Postpone Presidential Convention

Amid the pandemic, the Democratic National Committee decided to postpone the party’s presidential convention in Milwaukee from July 13 to August 17, one week before the Republican Party’s convention. “I’m confident our convention planning team and our partners will find a way to deliver a convention in Milwaukee this summer that places our Democratic nominee on the path to victory in November,” convention CEO Joe Solmonese said in a statement Thursday.

The DNC is postponing the party’s presidential convention in Milwaukee to August 17https://t.co/46kMdLqxFm

— POLITICO (@politico) April 2, 2020

Experts Tell White House Virus Can Spread Through Talking/Breathing

A venerable panel of scientific experts informed the White House that research shows COVID-19 can spread not just through sneezing and coughing, but also by just talk, or possibly even just breathing. “While the current [coronavirus] specific research is limited, the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing,” according to the letter, written by Dr. Harvey Fineberg, chairman of a committee with the National Academy of Sciences, according to a CNN article. Dr. Fineberg told CNN that he will begin wearing masks when traveling to the grocery store.

A prestigious scientific panel told the White House Wednesday night that research shows coronavirus can be spread not just by sneezes or coughs, but also just by talking, or possibly even just breathing. https://t.co/p5DbpVL500

— CNN (@CNN) April 2, 2020

Spring Breakers Spreading Infections

Out of 70 students who boarded a plane from Austin, Texas to Mexico for spring break two weeks ago, more than 40 have now tested positive for COVID-19 – all of them University of Texas at Austin students. “Quit being an a**,” Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen said in an interview with CNN affiliate KXAN. “Get over yourselves. Whether you think this is an issue or not, it is. Whether you think it could affect you or not, it does. The reality of it is, if I’m a college kid who’s going to spring break in Mexico, you’re affecting a lot of people. Grow up.”

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

• New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered the closure of all New York City playgrounds on Wednesday to mitigate the virus’ spread.
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced a stay-at-home order for all Floridians to impede COVID’s spread.
• Stocks fell by 4% on Wednesday following President Trump’s aforementioned warning of deadly days to come. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 909 points, or 4.1% in midday trading, while the S&P 500 fell by 4.4% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped by 3.9%. This comes one day after the Dow closed out their worst quarter since 1987.
• President Trump warns of a ‘painful’ next weeks as the virus’ peak nears closer.
• New data from Iceland reveals that 50% of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 said they did not present with any symptoms.
• The COVID-19 death toll in the United Kingdom rose by a record 563 in the last 24 hours, and now Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government is under fire for failing to keep its promise to ramp up testing.

Here’s a full wrap-up of COVID-19 happenings from the month of March.

https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/the-covid-19-pandemic-march-round-up-coronavirus-declared-a-pandemic-people-businesses-and-economies-devastated/

DocWire News will provide breaking updates on the COVID-19 pandemic as they become available.