Live updates: States ease restrictions as jobless count surpasses 30 million

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With stay-at-home restrictions in states such as Alabama, Tennessee and Texas expiring on May 1, millions of Americans will be able to return to stores, restaurants and movie theaters on Friday. Though the death toll from the coronavirus continues to grow, more than half of U.S. states will have eased coronavirus-related restrictions or started preparing to reopen by the end of the week.

Absent of guidance from the federal government, governors across the United States have taken wildly disparate approaches toward balancing public health demands with the need to reopen their state economies. In perhaps the most dramatic example of how these competing priorities have inflamed bitter partisan battles, armed demonstrators stormed Michigan’s state Capitol on Thursday to protest Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s strict stay-at-home order.

Here are some significant developments:

  • More than 3.8 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the total number of claims filed in the past six weeks to more than 30 million. That figure indicates that nearly 1 in 5 Americans have sought unemployment benefits — a number unprecedented in U.S. history.
  • Nearly 900 employees at a Tyson Foods plant in Indiana have tested positive for the coronavirus. A Washington Post investigation found that three of the country’s major meat processors, including Tyson, failed to provide adequate protective gear for workers and that some employees said they were told to continue working while sick.
  • U.S. officials are beginning to explore possible retaliation against China for its handling of the pandemic, such as demanding financial compensation. But some members of the Trump administration have warned that the move could strain tensions at a time when China is sending much-needed medical supplies to aid the American response.
  • Despite widespread speculation that the coronavirus could have accidentally escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, that did extensive research on how pathogens are spread by bats, there is no evidence of any connection between the two.
  • Vice President Pence’s office threatened to retaliate against a reporter who revealed that Pence’s own staff told journalists to wear masks during a Tuesday visit to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where Pence was photographed maskless, in violation of the medical facility’s policy.

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https://www.thenewsedge.com/2020/05/01/live-updates-states-ease-restrictions-as-jobless-count-surpasses-30-million/

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