Trump in rush to reopen economy as 22 million Americans out of work
washington — The ranks of Americans thrown out of work by the coronavirus ballooned on Thursday to at least 22 million in just four weeks, an unprecedented collapse that has fuelled widening protests and propelled President Donald Trump’s push to relax the nation’s social distancing guidelines.
Trump planned to announce new recommendations to allow states to reopen, despite warnings from business leaders and governors that more testing and protective gear are needed first. The government said 5.2 million more people applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the running total to about 22 million out of a US work force of roughly 159 million — easily the worst stretch of US job losses on record.
Some economists say the unemployment rate could reach 20 per cent in April, the highest since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While some leaders and citizens around the US have called on government to reopen stores, factories and schools, health authorities and many politicians warned that returning to normal is a distant goal and that lifting restrictions too soon could allow the virus to come storming back.
The decision of when and how to ease up rests not with the White House but with state and local leaders, who imposed the mandatory lockdowns and other restrictions put in place over the past month.
The outbreak has infected more than 2 million people worldwide and killed more than 137,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, though the true numbers are believed to be much higher. The death toll in the US reached about 31,000, with over 600,000 confirmed infections. Fallout from the virus spread in ways both predictable and devastating, from police torching an illicit food market in Zimbabwe, to emergency flights carrying foreign farm workers to Britain and Germany, and protests at US state capitols against job losses. In France, Amazon suspended operations after a court ruled it wasn’t doing enough to protect its workers in the country. —