Updated.
April 17, 2020 04: 21:51
Friday’s key minutes
- UK extends lockdown at ‘delicate and harmful phase’
- Africa could see 10 million infections
- Russia will accept ventilators from the United States
- Prince William opens new emergency situation COVID-19 health center
- Banksy produces bathroom art
50 million US jobs vulnerable
The wave of layoffs that has swallowed up the US economy given that coronavirus struck forced 5.2 million more people to seek joblessness benefits last week, the Government reported on Thursday.
That would be more than double the contraction that happened during the 2008–2009 recession, which was the worst decline since the Great Depression of the 1930 s.
Layoffs are spreading out beyond service industries like hotels, bars and restaurants, which absorbed the force of the initial task cuts, into white collar expert professions, consisting of software programmers, construction workers and sales people.
That figure is based on an estimation of jobs that are de