Global cases surpass one million mark as unemployment soars

More than a million cases of coronavirus have now been registered globally – another grim milestone as the world grapples with the spreading pandemic.

The mark was passed yesterday with the Covid-19 outbreak now having thrown ten million Americans out of work in just two weeks in the most dramatic collapse the US job market has ever witnessed.

Economists have warned unemployment could reach levels not seen since the Depression, as the economic damage piles up around the world.

The bleak news yesterday, with 6.6 million new unemployment claims on top of 3.3 million last week, came as deaths mounted with alarming speed in Spain, Italy and New York, the most lethal hot spot in the nation, with nearly 2,400 lives lost.

Global cases surpass one million mark as unemployment soars

Spain reported a record one-day number of deaths with 950, bringing its overall toll to about 10,000, despite signs that the infection rate is slowing. Italy recorded 760 more deaths for a total of 13,900, the worst of any country, but new infections continued to level off. More than 10,000 medical personnel in Italy have been infected and 69 doctors have died, authorities said.

There were sobering preparations in the US. The Federal Emergency Management Agency asked the Pentagon for 100,000 body bags because of the possibility funeral homes will be overwhelmed, the military said.

With more than 220,000 people infected in the US and the death toll topping 5,300, the Democratic Party pushed its nominating convention back a month to mid-August.

The mounting economic fallout almost certainly signals the onset of a global recession, with job losses that are likely to dwarf those of the Great Recession more than a decade ago.

Elsewhere around the world, European unions estimate at least a million on the Continent lost their jobs over the same period and say the actual number is probably far higher.

Spain alone added more than 300,000 to its unemployment rolls last month.

Yet the job losses appear to be far smaller than in the US because of Europe’s greater social safety nets, including government programs to reduce workers’ hours without laying them off, in the hope of bringing them back quickly once the crisis passes.