LIVE UPDATES: US jobless claims hit 30 million, coronavirus vaccine lab hopes for early human results in June
We'll keep this page updated with the biggest coronavirus headlines of the day. Scroll down for more information on each story and check back for updates.
Here's the latest:
US weekly jobless claims hit 3.8 million, bringing the 6-week total to more than 30 million.
The Oxford lab leading the race for a coronavirus vaccine says it will start knowing whether it works on humans in mid-June.
The horrendous impact of the coronavirus on Europe's economy is growing clearer as GDP shrinks 3.8%, and Germany, France, and Spain report catastrophic data.
Elon Musk posted then hastily deleted a tweet saying 'LIBERTY' surrounded by US flags after calling coronavirus lockdowns 'fascist.'
Trump says China's handling of the coronavirus is part of a plot to make him lose the election.
A NYC coronavirus patient died after inexperienced medical residents set her ventilator too high and it stopped her heart.
'It's amputation': Shell cut its dividend for the first time since World War II, the latest sign of the brutal crisis decimating the oil industry.
New Zealand's economy looks like it could be hit almost twice as hard as Australia's despite both containing the coronavirus so far. Here's why.
Texas is reopening its beaches this week, despite a rapidly rising death toll from COVID-19.
A Spanish official apologized after authorizing a local beach be sprayed with bleach in an attempt to disinfect it from the coronavirus.
Data Ticker - Covid 19 Global and US
US weekly jobless claims hit 3.8 million, bringing the 6-week total to more than 30 million.
Reuters
US jobless claims were 3.8 million for the week ending April 25, the Labor Department said Thursday. The median economist estimate was for 3.5 million claims during the week.
That brings the six-week total to roughly 30 million.
It's the fourth consecutive week of declines since claims peaked at the end of March.
Still, elevated claims in the millions weeks in a row shows persistent economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
The Oxford lab leading the race for a coronavirus vaccine says it will start knowing whether it works on humans in mid-June.
YouTube/University of Oxford
The University of Oxford team racing to find a coronavirus vaccine say it will get an early sign of whether it works on humans in mid-June.
Human trials of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 began in Oxford on April 23, following successful tests on macaque monkeys in late March.
"We hope to get some signal about whether it's working by the middle of June," Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the university, told BBC radio on Thursday.
Bell also announced a partnership with British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, which will scale up production if the vaccine is approved.
As many as 90 vaccines are in production around the globe, a few of which have started human trials.
The horrendous impact of the coronavirus on Europe's economy is growing clearer as GDP shrinks 3.8%, and Germany, France, and Spain report catastrophic data.
Marco Panzetti/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The eurozone economy contracted by 3.8% in the first quarter of 2020, according to preliminary estimates from Eurostat. The EU as a whole lost 3.5% of GDP, the data showed.
France and Spain's economies shrank by 5.8% and 5.2% respectively in the first-quarter of 2020, a sign that the extensive havoc caused by measures imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus is filtering through to the real economy.
German retail turnover plunged to the largest fall from the previous month since January 2007.
The data follows the release of stark data in the US on Wednesday, which showed GDP there shrinking by 4.8% annualized in Q1.
Elon Musk posted then hastily deleted a tweet saying 'LIBERTY' surrounded by US flags after calling coronavirus lockdowns 'fascist.'
AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted — and then quickly deleted — the word "LIBERTY" alongside American flag emojis and a picture of a swearing unicorn on Thursday morning.
The deleted tweet comes only a day after Musk called US shelter-in-place orders "fascist" and said that they're "breaking people's freedom," during a Tesla conference call on Wednesday.
In the last few weeks, the billionaire has questioned how effective lockdown orders were for saving lives during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump says China's handling of the coronavirus is part of a plot to make him lose the election.
NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images
President Donald Trump said that China's handling of the coronavirus is evidence that Beijing "will do anything they can" to have him lose the presidential election.
Campaign officials have been urging Trump to take a tougher line against China, with polls in several swing states suggesting he could lose to Joe Biden.
The president has taken varying positions on China — sometimes praising its handling of the crisis, and other times seeking to blame it for the pandemic.
A NYC coronavirus patient died after inexperienced medical residents set her ventilator too high and it stopped her heart.
A coronavirus patient in the Bronx, New York City, died in March after unprepared medical residents set her ventilator too high, and subsequently made her heart stop, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
The Bronx patient who died was a woman in her 60s who was being cared for on the overnight shift by family-medicine residents who later said they did not know how to work the ventilator settings, The Journal reported.
It was one of many similar stories The Journal uncovered, showing how medical residents training to be family doctors, dentists, and psychiatrists were being put in charge of caring for the critically ill.
Montefiore Hospital did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment. It also did not respond to The Journal.
'It's amputation': Shell cut its dividend for the first time since World War II, the latest sign of the brutal crisis decimating the oil industry.
Reuters
Shell reduced its first quarter dividend by 67% from $0.47 to $0.16.
It marks the first time since World War II that the Dutch oil giant has cut its dividend, the latest sign of the brutal reality of the oil market crisis.
The dividend cut is "more evidence of the appalling damage the pandemic is doing to the world economy," one analyst said, describing it as an "amputation."
Demand for oil has plummeted in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic halts air travel and shuts down manufacturing.
New Zealand's economy looks like it could be hit almost twice as hard as Australia's despite both containing the coronavirus so far. Here's why.
Experts are predicting New Zealand's economy will be far worse than Australia's in the coming months, despite both countries handling the coronavirus pandemic well.
By the end of 2020, New Zealand's economy could be 10.4% smaller, while Australia's is expected to be 4.7% smaller, economists told The Wall Street Journal.
The reason for this discrepancy is that New Zealand's lockdown was far more stringent than Australia's, and the repercussions from that could be long-lasting.
Texas is reopening its beaches this week, despite a rapidly rising death toll from COVID-19.
REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Effective May 1, Texas beaches will be open to the public.
The decision was made by the Texas General Land Office, led by George P. Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
The reopening coincides with the expiration of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's shelter-in-place order — as well as a rise in deaths from COVID-19.
On April 28, Texas reported 42 new fatalities resulting from the coronavirus — up from 26 a week before and 11 at the start of the month. Overall, at least 732 people have died from COVID-19 in the Lone Star State, which has confirmed just over 27,000 cases of the disease.
A Spanish official apologized after authorizing a local beach be sprayed with bleach in an attempt to disinfect it from the coronavirus.
Victoria Herranz/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Tractors drove across Zahara de los Atunes — a beach on the southern coast of Spain — spraying a bleach solution to disinfect it of the coronavirus.
The move was met with public outcry, namely from local environmentalists who said it caused "brutal" damage to the ecosystem of Zahara de los Atunes, the BBC reported.
Spain's Greenpeace organization compared the move to Trump's "sarcastic" suggestion that experts should research if disinfectants can be injected into the human body to cure the coronavirus.
City official Agustín Conejo apologized for the "wrong" move, saying that it was only meant to combat the infectious coronavirus.
This map shows where cases are concentrated in the US.
A global map shows the distribution of cases worldwide.
See how cases and deaths worldwide have risen over time since the outbreak began.
See our live tracker of coronavirus cases worldwide.
THE JOB HUNTER'S TOOL KIT: The ultimate tips, tricks, and resources for finding your dream job during the pandemic and beyond.
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Finding work often involves sending out countless resumes in hopes that someone takes a look. But there are better ways to catch a company's eye, especially while hiring is slow amid a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic.
Top tips for finding your dream job and landing an ace position include far more than impressive cover letters, say hiring managers and career experts.
Business Insider regularly interviews managers who reveal what they look for in candidates, along with employees who've landed lucrative roles in companies like Netflix and Facebook. You can read them all by subscribing to BI Prime.
Read the original article on Business Insider
