Tag: U.S.

Coronavirus has Americans picking up two new summer accessories: a mask and an alcoholic to-go drink.

After weeks of sheltering in place, many Americans are looking for ways to cut loose.

With bars and restaurants closed to the public in most states, and summer weather approaching, that means that many are heading outdoors to relax and socialise.

And for some, that means having a drink – sometimes in spite of the law.

Veteran drinks writer Amanda Schuster says that in her neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York, “it seems like everyone’s over” prohibitions on public drinking.

“It’s as if people have the attitude that ‘no one’s going to arrest us for this when they have other things to do,’” Ms Schuster, who is the editor-in-chief for online magazine Alcohol Professor, told the BBC.

This laissez-faire approach is something Americans used to have to go abroad to experience.

While an 18-year-old can walk into a London pub and order a pint, the national minimum age to purchase alcohol in the US has been 21 since 1984, when Congress passed the Minimum Drinking Age Act, in part over concerns about drink-driving fatalities.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

In many countries in Europe like Germany, it is perfectly fine to go for a stroll with a beer or bring wine to a picnic. But in the US, carrying open alcohol in public is largely forbidden, except in a handful of municipalities.

A notable exception in the US is New Orleans, Louisiana, a city that proudly boasts its relaxed open container laws, giving it the feel of a European town.

“We are considered fairly puritanical when compared to other countries in regard to liquor laws,” Ms Schuster says.

When the 21st Amendment repealed national prohibition in 1933, states were given the ultimate power to decide who could manufacture, sell and drink alcohol. That means that most states exercise tight control over who can sell alcohol, when, and where.

But as the realities of the coronavirus pandemic transform many aspects of American social life, many states are relaxing their rules.

Within days of enacting shelter-in-place ordinances and closing non-essential businesses, many states rescinded laws that previously restricted restaurants from selling alcohol to-go.

Others loosened rules around online liquor sales, or made it easier for customers to buy directly from breweries and wineries.

In most jurisdictions, the sale of alcohol was deemed “essential”, with the exception of the US state of Pennsylvania, which closed all state-run liquor stores.

“It’s about creating revenue and helping these poor businesses,” said Ms Schuster.

In addition to helping bars and restaurants stay afloat, states benefit from keeping their citizens buying booze. Taxes on alcohol serve as a large source of revenue for many states.

And as the lockdown drags on, and coronavirus stress continues, the data shows that alcohol sales show no signs of dropping.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

The week that New York announced the shelter-in-place, Nielsen reported alcohol sales had gone up significantly since the same time the previous year.

And last week, they reported that the US saw the largest growth of alcohol sales since the pandemic shutdowns started in March.

It’s a trend that is common in times of disaster, says Dr George Koob, the Director of the National Abuse of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

“We know historically that during 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina there was an upswing in alcohol consumption,” he told the BBC.

With more people drinking and to-go alcohol laws being loosened to protect businesses, many local governments have issued warnings that allowing to-go alcohol sales at restaurants and bars does not change open container laws.

Alexandria, Virginia’s government website states:

“Although the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority has temporarily allowed licensed restaurants and bars to sell beer, wine and mixed drinks for carryout and delivery, the Alexandria City Code still prohibits carrying open containers of alcohol in public.”

But in certain areas, there’s some indication that police aren’t focusing on people drinking in public.

Just over an hour north, Baltimore, Maryland has said it will dismiss pending criminal charges for people arrested for many non-violent crimes, including breaking open container laws.

The Baltimore City State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said that this in an effort to curb the number of people in jails that are proving to be a potential “breeding ground” of the virus.

Dr Koob says it’s still too soon to tell how the new to-go cup policies will change alcohol behaviour, but the NIAAA is in the process of tracking it.

However, he pointed out that with alcohol sales increasing and more people drinking, the loss of inhibition could lead to more people drinking outside.

“Alcohol’s effect on the body is disinhibition. Some of these individuals who are drinking a little more because of the isolation and the stress are disinhibited so they might think it’s okay to go outside for a walk and take their beverage with them.”

Whether or not alcohol to-go laws will remain the norm in the US after coronavirus passes remains to be seen, but Ms Schuster thinks it will be hard “to put the genie back in the bottle”.

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

She may be right.

On 28 April, Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted that the state would be extending the temporary rule that allowed restaurants to serve alcohol to-go to continue past 1 May, when it was initially set to expire.

And he implied that this rule may be here to stay.

“From what I hear from Texans, we may just let this keep on going forever,” Governor Abbott tweeted.

Thank you for your comments.

I ordered a burrito at my local cafe and got a beer to go. Sipped it on my 1/2 mile bike ride home. Andrew Finchamp, Chino, California

Writing from Williamsport, PA (yes: Little League Country): to-go cocktails and drive-up six-packs are common. Two recent daytime keg parties observed in our sleepy quiet neighborhood township of Loyalsock. Both featured an open garage with visible taps, a yard full of partying Pennsylvanians, and large pick-up trucks parked along the street. We go for walks quite often and see stuff. I must admit I usually carry a cold beer along, and some peanuts for the squirrels. These are difficult times, my friends, and a nice buzz doesn’t hurt. Jeff Vetock, Williamsport, Pennsylvania

In my neighborhood, have seen more and more people going on walks with bottles of beers and glasses of wine. You could expect to see it maybe once when the weather is nice – but even now with poor weather you see it more and more. Even at the local fishing pier, where having an open beverage before would often result in glares or warnings from officials, is now a sea of open containers while people aren’t working and trying to enjoy the outdoors. Rob Eckert, Detroit, Michigan

Yes, I have definitely seen an increase in outdoor drinking in the metro Vancouver regional parks. The local police do not seem to be bothered by this in the slightest. Outdoor open drinks are NOT legal here in B.C., but people really do seem to be shunning the laws and carrying on with it. Colin Nellis, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

For the first time ever I have been able to buy liquor, beer in this case online from a local micro brewery. Also we have been given the okay to have an alcoholic drink with our neighbours in our front gardens. A first, but coming from Europe, about time. Not all is bad with the pandemic. Catie Oates, North Saanich, British Columbia, Canada

In New York state, bars and restaurants will even deliver cocktails to your home right now. And every time we get takeout from one of our great local restaurants, we make sure to grab a few pints for the road, something unthinkable eight weeks ago. No one cares suddenly and there’s no true harm in it. I suspect the new economy in America will be far more tolerant of such things. Robert Holahan, Binghamton, New York

In Fort Lauderdale the bars have opened the pavement outside their premises to clientele. This has led to a street party atmosphere and in some cases the social distancing has been non-existent. Overall the customers are enjoying the freedom of drinking outside. Mi Gael Dutton, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

While this is a Florida beach resort city, and it was already legal to walk the streets with an open container, I would say that it is even more relaxed, and restaurants which are still selling only take-away food are also selling take-away package liquors as well. So you can get your coconut shrimp basket with a rum runner in a to-go cup. This is legal ON FOOT, but it runs afoul of the states open container laws in a vehicle. Nobody is paying any attention to that at this time. Bob Gassert, Madeira Beach, Florida

Falling prices for just about everything besides food sent US inflation dropping in April by the largest amount since the global financial crisis in 2008, government data showed Tuesday.

April’s consumer price index data were the first to fully capture the effects of the lockdowns to stop the coronavirus pandemic that have undone the world’s largest economy, sending the unemployment rate spiking to 14.7 percent and wiping out tens of millions of jobs, with 20.5 million rendered jobless last month alone.

The disruptions have caused a dramatic fall in demand for oil which, together with a price war between top producers Russia and Saudi Arabia, pushed down energy prices dramatically, contributing to the fall in CPI.

The CPI fell in April by a seasonally adjusted 0.8 percent, in line with analyst expectations but an acceleration of its 0.4 percent decline in March and its largest month-on-month fall since December 2008.

The index’s last month of positive growth was February, in which it rose 0.1 percent, and over the last 12 months the index only increased 0.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted.

Gasoline prices led April’s decline with a 20.6 percent fall, but other sectors badly affected by the business closure also saw prices drop.

Apparel dropped by 4.7 percent compared to March, the same rate as transportation services, while airline fares fell by 15.2 percent and used cars and trucks by 0.4 percent.

The “core” for all items except food and energy fell by 0.4 percent, its largest monthly drop since the index was created in 1957.

As consumers pared back spending to the essentials, the food index registered spectacular growth of 1.5 percent, with food at home jumping by 2.6 percent — it largest-ever monthly increase.

Meat, poultry, fish and eggs rose 4.3 percent, with eggs leading the charge with a 16.1 percent increase.

However, Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said some of that increase was due to supply shortages at slaughterhouses as they struggled to fend off outbreaks of COVID-19, and the report didn’t indicate the US was set for protracted deflation.

As the economy recovers from the coronavirus, “The collapse in clothing prices, for example, will be limited by the rotation of seasonal inventory and the reopening of retail stores, while airline traffic and hotel occupancy rates are now gradually rising, albeit from incredibly depressed levels,” Shepherdson said.

Source: france24.com

The US unemployment rate has risen to 14.7%, with 20.5 million jobs lost in April, as the coronavirus pandemic devastated the economy.

The rise means the jobless rate is now worse than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Since the pandemic began, the US has suffered its worst growth numbers in a decade and the worst retail sales report on record.

Just two months ago, the unemployment rate was at 3.5%, a 50-year low.

“It is historically unprecedented,” said economist Erica Groshen, former head of the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, who now teaches at Cornell University. “We have put our economy into a medically induced coma in order to heal it from the pandemic… and that has led to the most precipitous loss of jobs seen in any of the modern data.”

The report from the Labor Department showed declines in every sector of the economy.

Leisure and hospitality was hit especially hard, with payrolls falling by 7.7 million or 47%. Employers in education and health services cut 2.5 million positions, while retailers shed 2.1 million.

The Labor Department said more than three-quarters of those without jobs described themselves as temporarily laid off, a sign that many of those currently without work are hopeful that the economy will be able to rebound.

But economists warned that the pandemic is likely to force major changes to businesses – such as limits on how many people may be in a restaurant at one time – that could reduce the need for workers. And the longer the shutdown lasts, the more likely it is that a business will not survive.

“Even a temporary layoff can turn into a permanent one if the business doesn’t survive or if the business has to change its business model so dramatically that it needs different numbers or a different kind of worker,” Ms Groshen said.

The economic crisis is not unique to the US. In the UK, the Bank of England has warned of the sharpest recession on record, while Canada on Friday reported its unemployment rate had increased 5.2 percentage points to 13% last month.

Statistics Canada estimated that about a third of the workforce was either out of work, or working less than half of their usual hours.

In an appearance on the Fox News channel, US President Donald Trump shrugged off the 20.5 million jobs lost in the US as “totally expected” and “no surprise”.

“Even the Democrats aren’t blaming me for that. What I can do is I can bring it back,” he said as the figures were released.

But bankruptcies have already claimed retailers such as J Crew and Neiman Marcus, as well as many firms in the energy sector, where a collapse in oil prices, due in part to a pandemic-related drop in demand, has worsened the strains.

While some states have already started to relax restrictions, re-starting the economy is likely to be difficult, as workers worry about the risk of infection and grapple with the impact of school closures.

“I’m not certain what’s going to happen next,” said Tanya Nikolaevskaya, a legal assistant in New York, who was furloughed last month, after working from home in March.

Ms Nikolaevskaya hopes to return to what she described as her dream job, but she has a medical condition that makes her worried about infection and is a single mother, whose 8-year-old daughter will need care if schools do not reopen.

“It’s all about, ‘Is there childcare,’” she said. “If I will not have childcare, I will not be able to go back.”

The number of people in the labor force – working or looking for work – fell 2.5% last month, to its lowest level since 1970, while those reporting reduced hours or an inability to find a full-time job nearly doubled.

The Labor Department warned that the situation might be worse than estimated, pointing to the spike in the number of people who said they were employed but “absent from work”. Including those responses suggests an unemployment rate closer to 20%, it said.

Among black workers, the unemployment rate jumped to 16.7%, the highest since 2010. Among Hispanics, it surged to a record 18.9%, while it climbed to a lower – but still record-setting – 14.2% among white workers.

Overall, the unemployment rate was the highest recorded in data back to 1948, while the over-the-month jobs decline was the largest reported in data back to 1939.

“The scale of the challenge cannot be overstated,” said Robert Alster, head of investment services at wealth manager Close Brothers Asset Management.

Source: bbc.com

These charts show the daily number of cases and deaths in the US, and the rolling average.

In both cases, the rolling averages remain stubbornly high, although with a downward trend.

Newly-released figures – not included in these charts – show the US had 776 deaths in the past 24 hours, the lowest figure since March.

The US has the highest number of virus deaths and cases in the world – but it also has one of the biggest populations, and widespread testing.

Source: bbc.com

The US unemployment rate has risen to 14.7%, with 20.5 million jobs lost in April, as the coronavirus pandemic devastated the economy.

The rise means the jobless rate is now worse than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Since the pandemic began, the US has suffered its worst growth numbers in a decade and the worst retail sales report on record.

Just two months ago, the unemployment rate was at 3.5%, a 50-year low.

“It is historically unprecedented,” said economist Erica Groshen, former head of the government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, who now teaches at Cornell University. “We have put our economy into a medically induced coma in order to heal it from the pandemic… and that has led to the most precipitous loss of jobs seen in any of the modern data.”

The report from the Labor Department showed declines in every sector of the economy.

Leisure and hospitality was hit especially hard, with payrolls falling by 7.7 million or 47%. Employers in education and health services cut 2.5 million positions, while retailers shed 2.1 million.

The Labor Department said more than three-quarters of those without jobs described themselves as temporarily laid off, a sign that many of those currently without work are hopeful that the economy will be able to rebound.

But economists warned that the pandemic is likely to force major changes to businesses – such as limits on how many people may be in a restaurant at one time – that could reduce the need for workers. And the longer the shutdown lasts, the more likely it is that a business will not survive.

“Even a temporary layoff can turn into a permanent one if the business doesn’t survive or if the business has to change its business model so dramatically that it needs different numbers or a different kind of worker,” Ms Groshen said.

The economic crisis is not unique to the US. In the UK, the Bank of England has warned of the sharpest recession on record, while Canada on Friday reported its unemployment rate had increased 5.2 percentage points to 13% last month.

Statistics Canada estimated that about a third of the workforce was either out of work, or working less than half of their usual hours.

In an appearance on the Fox News channel, US President Donald Trump shrugged off the 20.5 million jobs lost in the US as “totally expected” and “no surprise”.

“Even the Democrats aren’t blaming me for that. What I can do is I can bring it back,” he said as the figures were released.

But bankruptcies have already claimed retailers such as J Crew and Neiman Marcus, as well as many firms in the energy sector, where a collapse in oil prices, due in part to a pandemic-related drop in demand, has worsened the strains.

While some states have already started to relax restrictions, re-starting the economy is likely to be difficult, as workers worry about the risk of infection and grapple with the impact of school closures.

“I’m not certain what’s going to happen next,” said Tanya Nikolaevskaya, a legal assistant in New York, who was furloughed last month, after working from home in March.

Ms Nikolaevskaya hopes to return to what she described as her dream job, but she has a medical condition that makes her worried about infection and is a single mother, whose 8-year-old daughter will need care if schools do not reopen.

“It’s all about, ‘Is there childcare,’” she said. “If I will not have childcare, I will not be able to go back.”

The number of people in the labor force – working or looking for work – fell 2.5% last month, to its lowest level since 1970, while those reporting reduced hours or an inability to find a full-time job nearly doubled.

The Labor Department warned that the situation might be worse than estimated, pointing to the spike in the number of people who said they were employed but “absent from work”. Including those responses suggests an unemployment rate closer to 20%, it said.

Among black workers, the unemployment rate jumped to 16.7%, the highest since 2010. Among Hispanics, it surged to a record 18.9%, while it climbed to a lower – but still record-setting – 14.2% among white workers.

Overall, the unemployment rate was the highest recorded in data back to 1948, while the over-the-month jobs decline was the largest reported in data back to 1939.

“The scale of the challenge cannot be overstated,” said Robert Alster, head of investment services at wealth manager Close Brothers Asset Management.

Source: bbc.com

The US unemployment rate has risen to 14.7%, with 20.5 million jobs lost in April, as the coronavirus pandemic devastated the economy.

The rise means the jobless rate is now worse than at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Since the pandemic began, the US has suffered its worst growth numbers in a decade and the worst retail sales report on record.

Just two months ago, the unemployment rate was at 3.5%, a 50-year low.

Weekly figures released on Thursday showed a further 3.2 million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week. That brings the total number of jobless claims since mid-March to 33.3 million- or about 20% of the US workforce.

In recent weeks, companies such as Uber, Lyft and Airbnb were among the firms that have announced cuts, as shutdowns halted significant amounts of travel.

The impact has been felt across the economy, affecting medical practices, restaurants and administrative workers among many others. The number of new claims reported each week by the US Department of Labor has subsided since hitting a peak of 6.9 million in March.

But they remain extraordinarily high.

And the number of people collecting benefits has continued to rise, despite recent moves to start re-opening in some parts of the country.

Source: bbc.com

The US coronavirus death toll climbed by 2,333 in the past 24 hours, a tally by Johns Hopkins University showed Tuesday, more than twice as many as the day before.

The Baltimore-based university said as of 8:30 pm (0030 GMT Wednesday) that the country had suffered a total of 71,022 deaths.

On Monday, the United States recorded its lowest daily balance in a month, with 1,015 fatalities.

President Donald Trump on Tuesday made his first major foray out of the White House since the coronavirus lockdown began, pushing for the US economy to reopen as Britain became the country with the second most deaths.

The growing US death toll is by far the highest globally, while Britain’s rose to 32,000, putting it above Italy in the grim ranking of national fatalities.

EUROPE

Elsewhere in Europe, hard-hit Italy, Spain and France have reported a levelling off of figures, offering hope that life could slowly start returning to normal.

With experts warning of a severe global recession, many governments have been easing stay-at-home measures in a bid to revive badly hammered economies.

Financial markets hinted at some light at the end of the tunnel, with stocks and oil prices rallying Tuesday.

“We can’t keep our country closed for the next five years,” Trump said on a trip to a mask-making factory in Arizona, conceding that some people would be “badly affected.”

He urged US states to ease restrictions as he attempts to fire up the world’s biggest economy before the November presidential election when the high death toll and millions of lost jobs could cost him dearly.

The US registered 2,333 more deaths over the 24-hours to Tuesday evening, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, with some scientific models suggesting the figure will rise to 3,000 a day by June.

NEED TO REVIVE

Countries are balancing the need to revive stalled economies against the risk of a new wave of deadly infections.

In Germany, regional leaders pushed back against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s pleas for caution, with the biggest state Bavaria saying it would reopen restaurants and hotels this month.

Hong Kong announced plans to reopen schools, cinemas, bars and beauty parlours from Friday, while Californian bookshops, florists and clothing stores will also be allowed to reopen at the end of the week.

Authorities also unveiled plans to hand out reusable face masks to all 7.5 million city residents.

“It’s better now that I’m waking up and doing something,” South African mechanic Milton Nkosi, 40, told AFP as he checked a new set of tyres at a garage in Johannesburg.

“I’m used to working,” he added. “It’s the first time in my life to stay home so many days.”

But the garage only called back four of its eight employees after being closed for five weeks and is only partially open — underlining the huge challenge to rebuild the global economy.

250,000 GRIM MILESTONE

At least 254,532 people have died of the novel coronavirus since the epidemic surfaced in China late last year, according to an AFP tally at 1900 GMT Tuesday based on official sources.

Russia cemented its place as the European country reporting the highest number of new infections as its total cases soared past 155,000.

Despite the increases, the Russian government has indicated it could gradually lift confinement measures from May 12.

The economic casualties have also piled up from the impact of the pandemic.

Spain added 280,000 people to its jobless ranks, while the Virgin Atlantic airline said it would have to fire one in three staff as the virus grounds planes worldwide.

Walt Disney said it expected an impact of some $1.4 billion in the current fiscal quarter as a result of a massive hit to its theme parks and other operations.

And home-sharing platform Airbnb announced it would slash one fourth of its workforce due to the collapse of the travel industry.

In India, police used batons to beat back crowds jostling to buy alcohol for the first time in 40 days as the world’s biggest lockdown eased.

The government in New Delhi credits its strict shutdown with keeping the official tally of COVID-19 deaths to 1,400 in a country with a population of 1.3 billion.

But the policy has resulted in misery for millions of workers in India’s vast informal sector left suddenly jobless.

India said Tuesday it had embarked on a “massive” operation calling up passenger jets and naval ships to bring back some of the hundreds of thousands of its nationals stuck abroad.

Evacuees will have to pay for their passage and spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival.

Polish voters were still in the dark on Tuesday as to whether their presidential election will go ahead as scheduled this weekend.

The right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government is seeking parliamentary approval to conduct the election by postal ballot — despite widespread concern that it would not be fair, legal or safe.

In a ray of hope for the sports world, South Korea’s baseball players returned to action, albeit to empty stadiums.

Banners with photos of masked fans stretched across the bleachers at the Incheon-based SK Wyverns club’s Munhak Baseball Stadium.

Players have been asked not to shake hands or exchange high-fives, while spitting is prohibited.

Friday will also see the delayed start of the country’s football K-League.

Juventus players returned to individual training at the team’s sports centre in Turin on Tuesday, though star player Cristiano Ronaldo began two weeks’ quarantine after returning to Italy following two months of confinement on his native island of Madeira.

But in Britain, sports leaders warned of the “catastrophic” impact of the virus, with football, cricket and rugby counting the cost of delayed or cancelled tournaments and leagues.

Source: AFP

The US has said it wants to borrow a record $3tn (£2.4tn) in the second quarter, as coronavirus-related rescue packages blow up the budget.

The sum is more than five times the previous quarterly record, set at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

In all of 2019, the country borrowed $1.28tn. The US has approved about $3tn in virus-related relief, including health funding and direct payouts.

Total US government debt is now near $25tn.

The latest spending packages are estimated to be worth about 14% of the country’s economy. The government has also extended the annual 15 April deadline for tax payments, adding to the cash crunch.

The new borrowing estimate is more than $3tn above the government’s previous estimate, a sign of the impact of the new programs.

Discussions are under way over further assistance, though some Republicans have expressed concerns about the impact of more spending on the country’s skyrocketing national debt.

The US borrows by selling government bonds. It has historically enjoyed relatively low interest rates since its debt is viewed as relatively low-risk by investors around the world.

But even before the coronavirus, the country’s debt load had been climbing toward levels many economists consider risky for long-term growth, as the country spent more than it took in.

The US Congressional Budget Office last month predicted the budget deficit would hit $3.7tn this year, while the national debt soared above 100% of GDP.

Last week, the chair of America’s central bank, Jerome Powell, said he would have liked to see the US government’s books be in better shape before the pandemic.

However, he said spending now was essential to cushion the economic blow, as orders to shut businesses to slow the spread of the virus cost at least 30 million people their jobs.

“It may well be that the economy will need more help from all of us if the recovery is to be a robust one,” he said.

As part of its own relief efforts, the Federal Reserve has bought more than $1tn in treasuries in recent weeks.

Investors from foreign countries are also historically significant holders of US debt, with Japan, China and the UK at the top of the pack as of February.

Increased tensions between the US and China in recent years have renewed scrutiny of America’s debt position. According to the Washington Post last week, Trump administration officials had discussed canceling debt obligations to China, but US President Donald Trump reportedly played down the idea, saying “you start playing those games and it’s tough”.

For now, continued low rates suggest investor appetite for US debt remains, allowing for a borrowing increase, Alan Blinder, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, told the BBC last month.

“So far, the answer has been everything is fine, as to how much borrowing the United States government can do before investors start to feel satiated with US debt,” he said. “But there is a legitimate question.

Source: bbc.com

The United States recorded 2,502 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest real-time tally on Wednesday reported by Johns Hopkins University.

After two days of a relative easing in the toll on Sunday and Monday, the numbers have spiked again the past two days.

At least 60,853 people have now died in the country, according to the Baltimore-based university

Source: punchng.com

The US virus death toll has surpassed 50,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, in what is the world’s deadliest Covid-19 outbreak.

More than 3,000 deaths came in the last 24 hours, and there are now over 870,000 confirmed cases nationwide.

But the US still has a lower mortality rate than most European nations based on current case counts, as the White House task force has emphasised.

The grim news comes as parts of the US reopen after weeks of lockdown.

Some hair salons, bowling alleys and other businesses are opening on Friday in Georgia, Alaska and Oklahoma.

The US has by far the highest death toll and case count in the world.

However, it has a population of 330 million, much higher than other worst affected countries such as Spain and Italy.

Dr Deborah Birx, an expert on the White House Covid-19 task force, has said the country has “one of the lowest mortality rates in the entire world”.

On a per capita basis, the reported US death rate of 1.4 is lower than Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and the UK.

The US is top of the grim league table for reported coronavirus deaths, but that’s not the whole picture.

Part of the reason is population – many countries in Europe have reported more deaths per head of population than the US and Europe as a whole has reported more deaths overall.

But beware of comparing huge countries in this way.

The picture in New York is very different to the picture in the rest of the US and the same goes for other countries.

Italy really has two epidemics – one in the north of the country that overran healthcare and another down south that is much less advanced.

Death rates also depend on how you count – France’s and Belgium’s figures include suspected Covid cases, making their figures look a lot worse.

Recent steep rises in the daily US death toll are also partly due to the inclusion of “probable” virus deaths.

The US Centers for Disease Control on 14 April said their case counts would include both confirmed and probable cases and deaths.

A probable Covid-19 death is one that meets clinical and epidemiological criteria but has not been confirmed by testing.

It is also important to note that many mild Covid-19 cases remain unreported, so the death rate from confirmed cases is not the same as the disease’s overall death rate.

Testing efforts are key to tracking the actual mortality and spread of the disease.

Vice-President Mike Pence, the taskforce leader, said the US has conducted 4.9 million tests thus far, and is working with governors to expand testing.

The $484bn economic stimulus bill, passed yesterday by Congress, also includes funding for testing expansion.

The US is top of the grim league table for reported coronavirus deaths, but that’s not the whole picture.

Part of the reason is population – many countries in Europe have reported more deaths per head of population than the US and Europe as a whole has reported more deaths overall.

But beware of comparing huge countries in this way.

The picture in New York is very different to the picture in the rest of the US and the same goes for other countries.

Italy really has two epidemics – one in the north of the country that overran healthcare and another down south that is much less advanced.

Death rates also depend on how you count – France’s and Belgium’s figures include suspected Covid cases, making their figures look a lot worse.

Recent steep rises in the daily US death toll are also partly due to the inclusion of “probable” virus deaths.

The US Centers for Disease Control on 14 April said their case counts would include both confirmed and probable cases and deaths.

A probable Covid-19 death is one that meets clinical and epidemiological criteria but has not been confirmed by testing.

It is also important to note that many mild Covid-19 cases remain unreported, so the death rate from confirmed cases is not the same as the disease’s overall death rate.

Testing efforts are key to tracking the actual mortality and spread of the disease.

Vice-President Mike Pence, the taskforce leader, said the US has conducted 4.9 million tests thus far, and is working with governors to expand testing.

The $484bn economic stimulus bill, passed yesterday by Congress, also includes funding for testing expansion.

Source: bbc.com

U.S. coronavirus deaths topped 49,000 on Thursday as the number of lives lost in April rises by an average of 2,000 a day, according to a Reuters tally.

At that rate, U.S. deaths will reach 50,000 no later than Friday.

The total number of U.S. cases was approaching 860,000 with many states yet to report on Thursday.

U.S. cases rose by over 30,000 on Wednesday, the biggest increase in five days but in line with an average of 30,000 new cases a day in April, according to a Reuters tally.

Across the country, state officials say there remain bottlenecks in testing capacity, shortages of materials such as swabs used for taking samples and not enough workers to contact- trace infections.

In addition to a staggering death toll, unemployment claims soared on Thursday and reaffirmed the grim economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

Over 26.5 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits over the last five weeks, confirming that all the jobs gained during the longest employment boom in U.S. history have been wiped out as the novel coronavirus savages the economy.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey this month showed a bipartisan majority of Americans want to continue to shelter in place to protect themselves from the coronavirus, despite the impact to the economy.

Source: reuters.com

US police found 17 bodies piled up in a nursing home morgue in New Jersey, media reported Thursday, highlighting how the coronavirus outbreak is overwhelming long-term care facilities.

Officers in the small locality of Andover, around 52 miles (80 kilometers) west of New York City, discovered the bodies following an anonymous tip-off, according to The New York Times.

The discovery came on Monday at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Unit — one of the largest care homes in New Jersey, a state badly hit by coronavirus.

The cause of death of the 17 has not been confirmed but 68 people have recently died at the facility, and 26 of those tested positive for COVID-19, the Times reported.

Police did not confirm the number of bodies found.

But in a statement posted on the Andover police Facebook page, one of the home’s owners, Chaim Scheinbaum, said the morgue, which normally houses four bodies, “never had more than 15 present” on Monday.

“The staff was clearly overwhelmed and probably short-staffed,” Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson told CNN.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he was “outraged” that bodies had been allowed to pile up and ordered an investigation.

COVID-19 has killed more than 32,000 people across the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University, with New Jersey the worst-hit state after New York.

The outbreak has reportedly claimed thousands of lives in retirement homes, spotlighting how vulnerable the elderly are to the illness.

Source: France24

The US recorded the most coronavirus deaths in a single day with 1,736 fatalities reported on Tuesday.

It brings the total number of deaths in the country to 12,722, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The US has more than 398,000 confirmed cases, the highest number in the world. Global cases have exceeded 1.4 million.

However, during a press conference, President Donald Trump said the US might be getting to the top of the “curve”.

Meanwhile, the city of Wuhan in China, where the infection first emerged, ended its 11-week lockdown.

The new figures announced on Tuesday are up on the previous record of 1,344 which was recorded on 4 April.

The number of deaths recorded on Tuesday is expected to rise with some states yet to share their totals.

The family of American singer-songwriter John Prine has confirmed his death from complications related to coronavirus.

Known for songs such as Angel from Montgomery and Sam Stone, Prine died in Nashville on Tuesday at the age of 73. His wife tested positive for coronavirus and recovered however Prine was hospitalised last month with symptoms and placed on a ventilator.

A number of musicians including Bruce Springsteen and Margo Price have paid tribute to him.

How hard has New York been hit?

A large proportion of the deaths announced were from New York state. Widely considered the epicentre of the outbreak, it recorded 731 deaths on Tuesday.

It is on the cusp of overtaking the entire country of Italy with its number of confirmed cases.

Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state appeared to be nearing the peak of its pandemic. Hospital and intensive care admissions were down.

The governor urged people to stay inside and continue with social distancing.

“I know it’s hard but we have to keep doing it,” he said.

New Yorkers have been told to avoid large gatherings as Passover and Easter approaches.

Elsewhere, the state of Wisconsin pressed ahead with an election on Tuesday, despite a state-wide stay-at-home order amid the escalating outbreak.

Source: bbc.com

President Donald Trump has expressed hope coronavirus cases were “levelling off” in US hotspots, saying he saw “light at the end of the tunnel”.

On Sunday, New York, the epicentre of the US outbreak, reported a drop in the number of new infections and deaths.

Mr Trump described the dip as a “good sign”, but warned of more deaths as the pandemic neared its “peak” in the US.

“In the days ahead, America will endure the peak of this pandemic,” Mr Trump said at his daily coronavirus briefing.

He said more medical personnel and supplies, including masks and ventilators, would be sent to the states that are most in need of assistance.

Deborah Birx, a member of the president’s coronavirus task force, said the situation in Italy and Spain, where infections and deaths have fallen in recent days, was “giving us hope on what our future could be”.

“We’re hopeful over the next week that we’ll see a stabilization of cases in these metropolitan areas where the outbreak began several weeks ago,” Dr Birx said at the same news conference.

Optimism from Dr Birx and Mr Trump contrasted with other leading US experts, including top advisor Dr Anthony Fauci, who earlier said the short-term outlook was “really bad”.

The US surgeon general, meanwhile, warned that this will be “the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives”.

“This is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, our 9/11 moment,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Fox News on Sunday.

The US has reported 337,274 confirmed infections and 9,619 deaths from Covid-19, by far the highest tally in the world.

What’s the latest in New York? On Sunday, Governor Andrew Cuomo reported 594 new deaths giving an overall total of 4,159 deaths in New York, the state hit hardest by the coronavirus so far.

He said there were now 122,000 New York residents who had been infected. But he added that nearly 75% of patients who have required hospitalisation had now been discharged.

Patients requiring hospital are down for the first time in a week, and deaths are down from the previous day, he said.

There were 630 deaths reported in the previous 24 hours.

“The coronavirus is truly vicious and effective at what the virus does,” he told reporters in Albany, the state capital.

“It’s an effective killer.”

It’s too early to know if New York is currently experiencing its apex – the highest rate of infection that graphics behind Mr Cuomo referred to as “the Battle on the Mountain Top”.

He also said it was too early to know if cases would drop off quickly after the apex, or if they would decline slowly – and at a rate that would still overwhelm hospitals.

“The statisticians will not give you a straight answer on anything,” he said about the so-called “curve” – the chart that tracks the rate of infections.

“At first it was straight up and straight down, or a total ‘V’. Or maybe its up with a plateau and we’re somewhere on the plateau. They don’t know.”

Source: bbc.com

The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits has hit a record high for the second week in a row as the economic toll tied to the coronavirus intensifies.

More than 6.6 million people filed jobless claims in the week ended 28 March, the Department of Labor said.

That is nearly double the week earlier, which was also a new record.

The deepening economic crisis comes as the number of cases in the US soars to more than 216,000.

With the death toll rising to more than 5,000, the White House recently said it would retain restrictions on activity to try to curb the outbreak.

Analysts at Bank of America warned that the US could see “the deepest recession on record” amid forecasts that the unemployment rate could hit more than 15%.

The outlook is a stark reversal for the world’s biggest economy where the unemployment rate had been hovering around 3.5%.

However, more than 80% of Americans are now under some form of lockdown, which has forced the closure of most businesses.

By Michelle Fleury, New York business correspondent

This is the highest number of new unemployment claims in US history.

But what is so terrifying is not just the magnitude but also the speed with which American firms have shed workers.

Roughly 10 million Americans lost their jobs in just the last two weeks. To put that in context, 9 million jobs were lost in the 2008 financial crisis.

There were several reasons for this week’s historic increase.

More states ordered non-essential businesses to close to contain the virus. According to economists, a fifth of the US workforce is now in some form of lockdown.

And a government relief package signed last week expanded unemployment benefits to help more people, such as the self-employed and independent contractors.

Some fear the true number could be even higher since many people couldn’t even get through to file a claim.

Given these are weekly figures, this data is the closest we have to real-time information showing just how catastrophic the pandemic is for the American economy. And it points to a bruising couple of months ahead.

More than 3.3 million people filed claims two weeks ago, eclipsing the previous record of 695,000, set in 1982 and bringing the two-week total to about 10 million.

The most recent figure was worse than many economists had feared.

“I don’t usually look at data releases and just start shaking,” said Heidi Shierholz, former chief economist at the US Department of Labor and now policy director at the Economic Policy Institute. “This is a portrait of disaster … It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It represents just incredible amounts of grief and suffering.”

Workers in accommodation and food services were hit hard again this week, the Department of Labor said.

But it added that states are reporting “a wider impact across industries”.

“With this report, there should be little doubt that … US is already in deep recession and the global economy will be too”, tweeted Mohamed A El-Erian, chief economic adviser to financial services firm Allianz.

The US recently passed a more than $2tn rescue bill, which funds direct payment for households, assistance for businesses and increased unemployment benefits.

It also made more people eligible to receive benefits, including workers whose jobs are suspended rather than cut. There is speculation the government may provide further relief.

Unlike other countries such as the UK, the US has not implemented a program that pays firms to keep workers on the payroll – one reason the numbers are so stark, Ms Shierholz says.

“There’s an attempt at it,” Ms Shierholz said, pointing to the expanded eligibility. “But this concept of keeping workers on the payroll through a downturn is not well socialized in the US. It’s just not how we’ve done things in the past.”

Source: bbc.com