Los Angeles Times - 03.04.2020

$2.75DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER © 2020 D FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2020 latimes.com

WASHINGTON — Soar-

ing layoffs due to the corona-

virus pandemic pushed a

record 10 million Americans

to apply for jobless benefits

in the last two weeks, the

government said Thursday,

raising the specter of an eco-

nomic crisis so extreme it

could end in another Great

Depression.

As COVID-19 cases

passed the 1-million mark

worldwide, the Labor De-

partment figures were the

latest evidence of how the

global health crisis has crip-

pled a U.S. economy that

just a month ago was enjoy-

ing a record expansion and

half-century low in unem-

ployment.

“To put it bluntly, the U.S.

economy went from full

speed to full stop — and mil-

lions of workers were not

wearing seat belts,” said

Josh Lipsky, director of glob-

al business and economics

policy at the Atlantic Coun-

cil, a nonpartisan think

tank.

The avalanche of warn-

ing signs catapulted mem-

bers of Congress and policy

analysts to push for a new

round of federal relief on top

of the $2.2-trillion package

passed last week.

At a White House brief-

ing, Treasury Secretary

Steven T. Mnuchin said he

had spoken with congres-

sional leaders about another

bailout plan, but negotia-

tions had not begun. “When

the president’s ready and

thinks we should do the next

stage, we’re ready,” he said.

Mnuchin also pushed

back on concerns about de-

lays in sending direct pay-

ments of up to $1,200 to many

American adults, a key pro-

vision of the relief package.

He said people who already

receive direct deposit pay-

ments from the Internal

Revenue Service should

start getting money the

week of April 13.

“This money does people

no good if it shows up in four

months,” Mnuchin said.

The IRS is also creating

an online portal where peo-

Jobless aid filings rise to 10 million

The 6.6 million new

claims are double the

number of the week

before, raising fears

the U.S. and other

economies are headed

for a severe recession.

By Don Lee,

Sarah D. Wire and

Jennifer Haberkorn

[SeeUnemployment,A9]

(Seasonally adjusted, in millions)

0

2

4

6

2008 2009 2010 2011 201220132014 2015 2016201720182019 2020

March 28:Claims reached

6,648,000, an increase of

3,341,000 from the previous

week's revised level.

March 21:Claims are

revised up to 3,307,000,

an increase of slightly

more than 3 million claims

from the week before.

March 28, 2009: During the

Great Recession, initial jobless

claims peaked at 665,000.

Great Recession

from Dec. 2007

to June 2009

Department of Labor ThomasSuh LauderLos Angeles Times

Initial unemployment claims for last week marked the

highest level in the history of seasonally adjusted data.

Weekly unemployment claims

BUSINESS INSIDE:After clawing out of poverty, a hotel worker finds her life upended. A

Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention would soon

issue new guidelines, soft-

ening an earlier anti-mask

stance. This came 33 days af-

ter the U.S. surgeon general

tweeted that masks “are

NOT effective in preventing

general public from catching

#Coronavirus.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom

hewed to a similar path at a

noon coronavirus briefing.

He stopped short of telling

Amid the confusion from

Washington, D.C., to Sacra-

mento and parts in between,

one thing has become abun-

dantly clear in the era of

COVID-19: The mask is hav-

ing a moment.

On Thursday, President

Trump announced that the

Californians that they have

to wear face coverings when-

ever they leave their homes,

but he didn’t discourage use

of the increasingly ubiqui-

tous masks either.

“We believe, and we put

out guidelines, that if indi-

viduals want to have face

coverings, that that is a good

thing and a preferable

thing,” Newsom said, “in ad-

dition to the physical dis-

[SeeMasks,A6]

EMILY BERRYand friend Gavin Kelley walk on Venice Beach on March 27.

Mel MelconLos Angeles Times

Masks as the new normal?

Face protection could catch on in U.S., expert says

By Ruben Vives,

Maria L. La Ganga

and Deborah Netburn

As a potent new coronavirus con-

tinues its lethal spread across Califor-

nia, many of Los Angeles County’s

whitest and wealthiest enclaves are

reporting far higher rates of infection

than are poorer neighborhoods of

color.

Predominantly white, affluent

areas such as Hancock Park, Bel-Air,

Beverly Crest and Brentwood re-

ported some of the highest per capita

rates of confirmed cases, while many

working-class and majority nonwhite

communities such as Bell Gardens,

Watts and El Monte reported much

lower rates, a Times analysis of

county health data through Wednes-

day shows.

But those disparities do not mean

the virus that causes COVID-19 is

spreading more widely through rich

neighborhoods than in poorer ones,

public health officials and experts

say. Rather, they are probably skewed

by uneven access to testing and, in

some instances, by wealthy residents

who traveled internationally and

had some of the earliest confirmed

infections.

The trend, some experts say,

bodes poorly for local efforts to con-

trol the spread of COVID-19, as it sug-

gests a troubling disparity of testing

along the lines of race, income and im-

migration status. They say a lack of

adequate testing in lower-income

HEALTH DATAin Los Angeles County suggest a troubling disparity of testing along the lines of race,

income and immigration status. Above, Rodeo Drive and Dayton Way are quiet and empty in Beverly Hills.

Jay L. ClendeninLos Angeles Times

Contagion’s class disparity

Wealthy L.A. areas have higher rates of coronavirus cases,

but the numbers may reflect inequalities in testing, travel

By Tony Barboza,

Ben Poston

and Angel Jennings

[SeeDisparity,A7]

Special education

students’ needs

With schools shut, chil-
dren with learning disa-
bilities have lost crucial
resources. Officials try
to adapt. CALIFORNIA, B

SINGAPORE — Viet-

nam has banned public

gatherings of more than two

people. Hong Kong has

closed nightclubs, karaoke

bars and mah-jongg parlors,

and deployed health inspec-

tors to check that restau-

rants are seating parties at

least six feet apart. Singa-

pore has warned that any-

one standing within three

feet of another person in line

could face up to six months

in jail.

Suddenly, Asian govern-

ments that appeared to be

bringing the coronavirus

under controlare imposing

new social restrictions as the

numbers of infections —

many from overseas — con-

tinue to rise.

In places that took early,

effective actionagainst the

COVID-19 outbreak, the

stepped-up measures in re-

cent days are a sign that

fighting the disease will take

much longer than antici-

pated. They also show that

governments must adapt

their responses as the threat

from the virus evolves, epi-

demiologists say.

“We have to find mea-

sures that can control, slow

down the virus, and do so in

a way that is sustainable —

not just for two weeks, two

months, but all the way

through to the end of the

year,” Lawrence Wong, co-

chair of Singapore’s co-

[SeeRestrictions,A4]

Asian authorities

impose new curbs

as virus rebounds

Governments adapt

as infections suddenly

are on the rise again.

By Shashank Bengali

Weather

Sunny and pleasant.

L.A. Basin: 71/53. B

MORE COVERAGE

Bleak numbers

on the outbreak

The pandemic has
reached a grim mile-
stone: more than 1 mil-
lion cases and more than
52,000 deaths. WORLD, A

Two months before the
novel coronavirus is thought
to have begun its deadly ad-
vance in Wuhan, China,
the Trump administration
ended a $200-million pan-
demic early-warning pro-
gram aimed at training sci-
entists in China and other
countries to detect and re-
spond to such a threat.
The project, launched by
the U.S. Agency for Interna-
tional Development in 2009,
identified 1,200 different vi-
ruses that had the potential
to erupt into pandemics, in-
cluding more than 160 novel
coronaviruses. The initia-
tive, called PREDICT, also
trained and supported staff
in 60 foreign laboratories —
including the Wuhan lab
that identified SARS-CoV-2,
the new coronavirus that
causes COVID-19.
Field work ceased when
the funding ran out in Sep-
tember, and organizations
that worked on the PRE-
DICT program laid off doz-
ens of scientists and ana-
lysts, said Peter Daszak,
president of EcoHealth Alli-
ance, a key player in the pro-
gram.
On Wednesday, USAID
granted an emergency ex-
tension to the program, issu-
ing $2.26 million over the
next six months to send ex-
perts who will help foreign
labs squelch the pandemic.
But program leaders say the
funding will do little to fur-
ther the initiative’s original
mission.
“Look at the name: Our
efforts were to predictthis
before it happens. That’s the
part of the program that was
exciting — and that’s the
part I’m worried about,”
Daszak said.
“It’s absolutely critical

U.S. ENDED

PROGRAM

TO FIND

DEADLY

VIRUSES

A $200-million

project halted last

year worked with labs

worldwide to identify

potential pandemics.

By Emily

Baumgaertner

and James Rainey

[SeeProgram, A6]