NEW YORK (AP) — The economic damage from the coronavirus crisis piled up as an unprecedented 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits in a single week, and the competition for masks and other protective gear intensified amid growing evidence that people who are infected but have no symptoms can spread the virus.
The staggering new unemployment claims, announced today, double those of last week’s previous record high and bring to 10 million the number of people who have lost their jobs in the U.S. in just two weeks because of the outbreak.
They almost certainly signal the onset of a severe global recession.
With large portions of America under lockdown to try to contain the scourge, job losses for the world’s biggest economy could reach as high as 20 million and the unemployment rate could spike to as high as 15% by the end of the month, many economists have said.
Meanwhile, there were sobering preparations for a rise in U.S. deaths. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked the Pentagon for 100,000 body bags because of the possibility funeral homes will be overwhelmed, the military said.
The mounting economic fallout came amid a worldwide race to protect people against unwitting coronavirus carriers.
A study by researchers in Singapore on Wednesday estimated that 10% of new infections may be sparked by people who carry the virus but have not yet developed symptoms.
In response, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed how it defines the risks of infection, saying essentially that anyone may be a carrier, with or without symptoms. But neither it nor the World Health Organization changed its stand that most people do not need to wear masks.
Still, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti recommended the city’s 4 million people wear masks, saying even a “tucked-in bandanna” could slow the spread of the virus and remind people to keep their distance from each other.
“I know it will look surreal,” he said, donning a mask. “We’re going to have to get used to seeing each other like this.”
The U.S. government’s top infectious-disease official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said medical experts are no closer to figuring out why some seemingly healthy people infected by the virus develop only mild or no symptoms while others become very sick. Fauci said today on NBC’s “Today” show that he has been “puzzled from the beginning” of the epidemic.
Governments also faced off over precious protective gear. A top health official in France’s hard-hit eastern region said American officials swooped in at a Chinese airport to spirit away a planeload of masks that France had ordered.
“On the tarmac, the Americans arrive, take out cash and pay three or four times more for our orders, so we really have to fight,” Dr. Jean Rottner, an emergency room doctor in Mulhouse, told RTL radio.
Nine leading European university hospitals warned today they will run out of essential medicines for COVID-19 patients in intensive care in less than two weeks. The European University Hospital Alliance said countries should cooperate, not compete, to ensure a steady supply.
President Donald Trump acknowledged that the federal stockpile is nearly depleted of the protective equipment needed by doctors and nurses.
“We’re going to have a couple of weeks, starting pretty much now, but especially a few days from now, that are going to be horrific,” he said.
