IT S TERRIFYING : MILLIONS MORE OUT OF WORK · Indiana said they re going on too long. Senator...

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Nikki R. Haley PAGE A27

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A26-27Places like Livingston Parish, La., above,have flouted FEMA rules on the heightof new and rebuilt homes. PAGE A21

NATIONAL A21, 23-25

Still Failing After the FloodStones near Henry David Thoreau’scabin have a message for these days ofsolitude, Holland Cotter writes. PAGE C1

WEEKEND ARTS C1-14

A Lesson From Under Our Feet

The Macroyan Kohna apartment dis-trict, built by the Soviets a half-centuryago, still flourishes despite manyrounds of wartime trauma. PAGE A19

INTERNATIONAL A19-20

The Beating Heart of Kabul

The Saudis seem eager for a quick exitfrom the long Yemen war, but they andthe Houthis remain far apart. PAGE A20

Doubts on Yemen Cease-Fire

Mort Drucker’s satirical illustrations ofcelebrities for Mad magazine inspiredother cartoonists. He was 91. PAGE B12

OBITUARIES B10-12

Master of the Mad CaricatureSome homebound stars are cooking upa “Saturday Night Seder” that is partvariety show, part fund-raiser. PAGE C4

Streaming for PassoverIn a scramble to expand voting by mail,thousands of absentee ballots wentundelivered or were nullified. PAGE A25

Wisconsin’s Mail-In Mess

With the coronavirus outbreakshutting businesses in everystate, fresh evidence of the eco-nomic devastation was deliveredThursday as a government reportshowed that 6.6 million moreworkers had lost their jobs.

The Labor Department an-nouncement, reflecting lastweek’s filings for unemploymentbenefits, meant that more than 16million people had been put out ofwork in just three weeks, an un-heard-of figure. Two years of joblosses from the last recessionproduced barely half that total.

Many economists say the actualjob losses so far are almost cer-tainly greater, and there is wideagreement that they will continueto mount.

It’s as if “the economy as awhole has fallen into some suddenblack hole,” said Kathy Bostjancic,chief U.S. financial economist atOxford Economics.

The Federal Reserve redoubledits effort to break that fall onThursday with an ambitious planto help companies and state andlocal governments gain access tofunding. The Fed said its new andexpanded programs could pump

$2.3 trillion into the economy.The central bank’s intervention

was welcomed in financial mar-kets, with the S&P 500 stock indexending the day with a gain of al-most 1.5 percent.

But additional relief from Wash-ington hit a Senate roadblock overwhat to include. Republicans haveproposed $250 billion to replenisha loan program for distressedsmall businesses, while Demo-crats want $250 billion more to as-sist hospitals and state and localgovernments dealing with coro-navirus-related expenses and rev-enue shortfalls.

‘IT’S TERRIFYING’: MILLIONS MORE OUT OF WORKBenefits Claims Far

Outpace Those of Great Recession

By PATRICIA COHENand TIFFANY HSU

INITIAL JOBLESS CLAIMS

Source: Dept. of Labor THE NEW YORK TIMES

WEEKLY, SEASONALLY ADJUSTED

6 million

0

4

2

’20’04 ’16’12’08

RECESSION

16,780,000Claims were

filed in the lastthree weeks

Continued on Page A8

WASHINGTON — When thefederal government began rush-ing trillions of dollars of assist-ance to Americans crushed by thecoronavirus pandemic, the hopewas that some of the aid would al-low businesses to keep workers onthe payroll and cushion employ-ees against job losses.

But so far, a staggering numberof Americans — more than 16 mil-lion — have lost their jobs amidthe outbreak. Businesses contin-ue to fail as retailers, restaurants,nail salons and other companiesacross the country run out of cashand close up shop as theircustomers are forced to stay athome.

There is a growing agreementamong many economists that thegovernment’s efforts were toosmall and came too late in the fast-moving pandemic to prevent busi-nesses from abandoning theirworkers. Federal agencies, work-ing in a prescribed partnershipwith Wall Street, have proved illequipped to move money quicklyto the places it is needed most.

An analysis by University ofChicago economists of data fromHomebase, which supplies sched-uling software for tens of thou-sands of small businesses thatemploy hourly workers in dining,retail and other sectors, suggestsmore than 40 percent of thosefirms have closed since the crisisbegan.

The pandemic could cost theUnited States a quarter of itsrestaurants, said CameronMitchell, who owns and runs achain of 21 restaurants in Ohio andhas more across the country. Hehas furloughed all but six of thecompany’s 4,000 workers. “I’mnot asking for a handout,” Mr.Mitchell said, but “we need someadditional help, or else America’snot going to have a restaurant in-dustry to come back to.”

His chain, Cameron MitchellRestaurants, had applied for a $10million loan through HuntingtonNational Bank but was awaitingconfirmation from the Small Busi-ness Administration in Washing-ton.

Policymakers have tried tohead off the economic devastationthat businesses like Mr. Mitchell’sare now experiencing, but it hasproved complicated. Congressand President Trump have al-ready approved nearly $3 trillion

Effort by U.S. to HaltEconomic Damage

Can’t Keep Up

By JIM TANKERSLEY

Continued on Page A8

EUROPEAN UNION Finance ministers agreed to a half-trillion-eurostimulus plan to buttress the Continent’s ailing economies. PAGE A9

WASHINGTON — In his dailybriefings on the coronavirus,President Trump has brandishedall the familiar tools in his rheto-rical arsenal: belittling Democrat-ic governors, demonizing the me-dia, trading in innuendo and bull-dozing over the guidance of ex-perts.

It’s the kind of performance thepresident relishes, but one thathas his advisers and Republicanallies worried.

As unemployment soars andthe death toll skyrockets, and newpolls show support for the presi-dent’s handling of the crisis sag-ging, White House allies and Re-publican lawmakers increasinglybelieve the briefings are hurtingthe president more than helpinghim. Many view the sessions as akind of original sin from which all

of his missteps flow, once he getsthrough his prepared script andturns to his preferred style of ex-temporaneous bluster and invec-tive.

Mr. Trump “sometimes drownsout his own message,” said Sena-tor Lindsey Graham of South Car-olina, who has become one of thepresident’s informal counselorsand told him “a once-a-weekshow” could be more effective.Representative Susan Brooks ofIndiana said “they’re going on toolong.” Senator Shelley MooreCapito of West Virginia said thebriefings were “going off the railsa little bit” and suggested that heshould “let the health profession-als guide where we’re going to go.”

Even the conservative Wall

Trump Savors Daily Briefings;Allies Call Them ‘Off the Rails’

By JONATHAN MARTIN and MAGGIE HABERMAN

Continued on Page A24

Annie Grant, 55, had been fe-verish for two nights. Worriedabout the coronavirus outbreak,her adult children had begged herto stay home rather than return tothe frigid poultry plant in Georgiawhere she had been on the pack-ing line for nearly 15 years.

But on the third day she was ill,

they got a text from their mother.“They told me I had to come backto work,” it said.

Ms. Grant ended up returninghome, and died in a hospital onThursday morning after fightingfor her life on a ventilator for morethan a week. Two other workers atthe Tyson Foods poultry plantwhere she worked in Camilla, Ga.,have also died in recent days.

“My mom said the guy at theplant said they had to work to feed

America. But my mom was sick,”said one of Ms. Grant’s sons, WillieMartin, 34, a teacher in South Car-olina. He said he watched on hisphone as his mother took her lastbreath.

The coronavirus pandemic has

reached the processing plantswhere workers typically stand el-bow-to-elbow to do the low-wagework of cutting, deboning andpacking the chicken and beef thatAmericans savor. Some plantshave offered financial incentivesto keep them on the job, but the vi-rus’s swift spread is causing ill-ness and forcing plants to close.

Smithfield Foods’ pork plant inSioux Falls, S.D., announced

Those Who Feed the U.S. Fear Their Lives Are Being Put at Risk

By MIRIAM JORDANand CAITLIN DICKERSON

Labor Shortage ForcesPause at Meat Plants

Continued on Page A13

Crates of masks snatched fromcargo planes on airport tarmacs.Countries paying triple the mar-ket price to outbid others. Accusa-tions of “modern piracy” againstgovernments trying to securemedical supplies for their ownpeople.

As the United States and Euro-pean Union countries compete toacquire scarce medical equipmentto combat the coronavirus, an-other troubling divide is alsoemerging, with poorer countrieslosing out to wealthier ones in theglobal scrum for masks and test-ing materials.

Scientists in Africa and LatinAmerica have been told by manu-facturers that orders for vital test-ing kits cannot be filled formonths, because the supply chainis in upheaval and almost every-thing they produce is going toAmerica or Europe. All countriesreport steep price increases, fromtesting kits to masks.

The huge global demand formasks, alongside new distortionsin the private market, has forcedsome developing countries to turnto UNICEF for help. EtlevaKadilli, who oversees supplies atthe agency, said it was trying tobuy 240 million masks to help 100countries but so far had managedto source only around 28 million.

“There is a war going on behindthe scenes, and we’re most wor-ried about poorer countries losingout,” said Dr. Catharina Boehme,the chief executive of Foundationfor Innovative New Diagnostics,which collaborates with the World

Poorer NationsCan’t CompeteEven for Masks

By JANE BRADLEY

A service for a coronavirus victim in São Paulo, Brazil. With more than 10,000 cases, Brazil is Latin America’s hardest-hit country.VICTOR MORIYAMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A6

Anil Subba, a Nepali Uberdriver from Jackson Heights,Queens, died just hours after doc-tors at Elmhurst Hospital thoughthe might be strong enough to beremoved from a ventilator.

In the nearby Corona neighbor-hood, Edison Forero, 44, a restau-rant worker from Colombia, wasstill burning with fever when hishousemate demanded he leavehis rented room, he said.

Not far away in JacksonHeights, Raziah Begum, a widowand nanny from Bangladesh, wor-ries she will be ill soon. Two of herthree roommates already havethe symptoms of Covid-19, the dis-

ease caused by the coronavirus.Everyone in the apartment is job-less, and they eat one meal a day,she said.

“We are so hungry, but I ammore terrified that I will get sick,”said Ms. Begum, 53, who has dia-betes and high blood pressure.

In a city ravaged by the coro-navirus, few places have sufferedas much as central Queens, wherea seven-square-mile patch of

densely packed immigrant en-claves recorded more than 7,000cases in the first weeks of the out-break.

Across New York, there was arelatively encouraging sign onThursday: Hospitalizations re-mained nearly flat for the firsttime since the lockdown began.Still, officials cautioned that it wastoo early to tell if the trend wouldhold.

Deaths have continued to climb,and the state reached a new one-day high of 799, according to fig-ures released Thursday.

Gov. Philip D. Murphy of NewJersey, which has had moredeaths than any other state be-sides New York, also said the

Losses Sweeping Immigrant Enclaves in Queens

By ANNIE CORREALand ANDREW JACOBS

Anxious and Sufferingin Densely Packed

Neighborhoods

An intersection in Jackson Heights. Starkly higher rates of cases have rocked sections of Queens.RYAN CHRISTOPHER JONES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A14

With discipline and teamwork honed insports, athletes with medical trainingjoin the pandemic response. PAGE B8

SPORTSFRIDAY B8-9

Suiting Up Against the Virus

As lockdowns keep us home, the plan-et’s natural quavering is being recordedwith remarkable clarity. PAGE B3

Seismologists’ Boom Times

A French racecar that left the ThirdReich’s best in the dust in a 1938 GrandPrix race now calls New Jersey home.Or maybe it’s California. PAGE B7

It Has Two Parking Spots

OPEC DEAL Oil-producing countries reached a tentative agreementwith Russia to cut production by about 10 million barrels a day. PAGE B1

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,659 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2020

Hospitals have warned, disciplined andeven fired staff members who wentpublic with concerns about safety whiletrying to treat a crush of patients in-fected with the coronavirus. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-7

Hospital Critics Pay a Price

The U.F.C. pulled the plug on its nextcard after California expressed con-cerns to its broadcast partners. PAGE B8

Ultimate Backdown

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,659 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2020

Today, some sunshine giving way toclouds, spotty showers, high 52. To-night, clear to partly cloudy skies,low 37. Tomorrow, mostly sunny,high 55. Weather map, Page A22.

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