USA Today - 27.03.2020

Quarantine hair care:

For some, it’s no joke

Salons are “nonessential businesses”?

Their clients would not agree. In Life

January 1967 March 2020

JIM SERGENT AND GEORGE PETRAS/USA TODAY; SOURCE Department of Labor

MARCH 28, 2009

665,

MARCH 26

3,283,

Weekly jobless claims

MARCH 21, 2009

661,

MARCH 7, 2009

660,

FEB. 21, 2009

655,

APRIL 4, 2009

653,

This week’s

claims are

almost equal

to the

worst

weeks

jobless claims

5th highest

week ever

Combined total

6th highest

7th highest

9th highest

10th highest

5

of the Great

Recession

combined.

Peak jobless claims

Oct. 2, 1982: 695,000 of Great Recession

700,

0

Previous high

3,294,

USA TODAY

THE NATION'S NEWS | $2 | WEEKEND | MARCH 27-29, 2020

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USA TODAY,

A division of

Gannett Co., Inc.

Taking them out of the crowd

Major League Baseball isn’t kicking off

this weekend, with the season delayed

amid an effort to limit public gatherings.

50K

40K

30K

20K

10K

Average per-game

attendance in 2019

(top 10):

Dodgers

CardinalsYankeesCubs

AngelsRockies

Red SoxBrewersAstrosPhillies

SOURCE ESPN
AMY BARNETTE, DAVID ANESTA/USA TODAY

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1-800-872-0001, USATODAYSERVICE.COM

Most auto dealers open

with ‘no contact’ service

Industry says sales, repairs are essential for

transportation to critical destinations. In Money

Home care

system

caught in a

quandary

In an already strained

industry, patients and

health workers alike

fear what the COVID-

spread means for them.

PHOTO BY JANET WALLACE Nation’s Health

Infections hit new highs

America led the world in coronavirus

cases Thursday with more than 82,

going into the weekend and more

than 1,180 deaths. New York remains

the epicenter with about 37,000 peo-

ple who have tested positive. Known

infections are almost guaranteed to

rise amid more testing. The global

death toll stood at more than 23,

and over 523,000 infections.

Markets rebound

U.S. stocks notched their first three-

day rally in six weeks in response to

progress on the stimulus package

while the outbreak in China showed

signs of containment. The Dow Jones

Industrial Average climbed 6.4% to

close at 22,552.17. The Standard &

Poor’s 500 added 6.2%. It was the

strongest three-day gain since 1931.

Waves of jail releases

Fearing that the virus could wreak

havoc in jails, counties across the USA

released hundreds of vulnerable in-

mates, an unprecedented action that

comes with risks of balancing public

health with community safety.

Risk to newborns

New guidance from the CDC and doc-

tors says pregnant women who be-

come infected or are exposed to the

illness may need to be separated from

their newborns for a week or more. It

is not known whether pregnant wom-

en are more likely to get sick from the

virus.

Trump's leadership

Americans are divided over President

Donald Trump's response to the crisis,

polls show. A Reuters/Ipsos online

survey of more than 4,000 Americans

found 49% approve of his handling of

the virus, while 44% disapprove,

largely along party lines.

No peanuts and Cracker Jack

Major League Baseball was supposed

to celebrate opening day Thursday.

Instead of it being the earliest open-

ing day in baseball history, the sea-

son's start date remains unknown, and

stadiums across America sit empty.

- Matt Leclercq

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

WASHINGTON – The checks are
coming.
One-time payments of up to $1,
should start going out in the next three
weeks to most Americans who file indi-
vidual tax returns, Treasury Secretary
Steven Mnuchin says.
Those who file joint tax returns will
get up to $2,400.
The payments are part of a $2 trillion
recovery package negotiated by the
White House and congressional leaders
to help Americans – and the economy –

bounce back from the economic fallout

from the coronavirus pandemic. The

Senate passed the package Wednesday,

and the House is expected to approve it

Friday.

The payments will be sent via direct

deposit to Americans who already have

provided the Internal Revenue Service

with their bank account information.

For those who haven’t, the checks will

be mailed.

Some tax experts question whether

the government will be able to meet

its three-week timeline for distributing

See CHECKS, Page 5A

Americans could see checks in 3 weeks

Michael Collins
USA TODAY

People who get checks via mail may

have a longer wait. MATT ROURKE/AP

A secretive cache of medical sup-

plies to save Americans from deadly di-

sasters for years lacked the funding to

prepare for a pandemic as widespread

as the coronavirus, former managers of

the stockpile told USA TODAY.

Overseen by a cadre of scientists,

disease specialists and others at the

U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, the Strategic National Stock-

pile houses roughly $8 billion in inven-

tory for rapid deployment to anywhere

in the United States in under 12 hours.

But its inadequate supply of ventila-

tors, respiratory masks and other per-

sonal protective equipment will leave

critical shortages for U.S. hospitals

scrambling to respond to the mounting

coronavirus pandemic.

New York state requested 30,

ventilators, and New York City alone

asked for 15,000 of them, as well as for 3

million N95 masks. California has re-

quested 10,000 ventilators and 20 mil-

lion N95 masks.

The stockpile had just 16,600 of the

breathing machines and an estimated

12 million N95 masks at the start of the

pandemic – not enough for those two

states, much less the rest of the coun-

try.

Year after year, former managers

say, they were forced to choose be-

tween spending its annual budget –

which for the past six year has aver-

US failed to

keep medical

stockpile

well funded

Donovan Slack

and Dinah Voyles Pulver

USA TODAY

See STOCKPILE, Page 4A

USA TODAY INVESTIGATION

Layoffs are skyrocketing to unprece-
dented levels as the coronavirus upends
the U.S. economy.
The number of Americans filing ini-
tial applications for unemployment
benefits jumped nearly twelvefold to a
record 3.28 million last week, the Labor
Department said Thursday, offering the
most vivid evidence yet of the pandem-
ic’s widespread damage to the economy.
The total was well above the 1.5 mil-
lion claims economists forecast, ac-
cording to the median estimate of those
surveyed by Bloomberg. Workers file
claims for unemployment benefits
when they lose their jobs.
“A definite and unmistakable sign the

United States has entered a recession,”

Bank of the West Chief Economist Scott

Anderson wrote in a note to clients.

The pandemic has set off the most

abrupt near-shutdown of the economy

in history. Many restaurants, shops,

movie theaters, sports arenas and other

gathering spots across the country sud-

denly closed their doors or scaled back

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ECONOMY

Record 3.3 million file

unemployment claims

Economist concerned that ‘layoffs are just starting’

Paul Davidson, Josh Peter
and Charisse Jones
USA TODAY

See JOBLESS, Page 5A

Restaurants and other

businesses have closed

to contain the spread of

the coronavirus. GEOFF

BURKE/USA TODAY NETWORK

“Definite and unmistakable

sign the United States has

entered a recession.”

Scott Anderson

Chief economist, Bank of the West