Coronavirus Watch: 22M Americans have lost jobs

A record 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits over the past month, erasing a decade of job gains since The Great Recession. More than 5.2 million people filed claims just last week.

It's Thursday, and this is Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network.

Here's the latest news, as of 2:30 p.m. ET:

• U.S. deaths spiked to a daily high of more than 2,400 yesterday. More than 640,000 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the U.S., and more than 31,000 have died. See a map of confirmed cases here.
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the state's stay–at–home policy until next month and expanded the new order on wearing masks to include subways, buses, trains and taxis.
• President Donald Trump was expected to speak to governors on guidelines for rolling back business closures and stay-at-home orders.
• Multiple states – including Michigan, Kentucky and Ohio – have seen protests against stay-at-home orders.
• The governors of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and Kentucky today announced that the states plan to coordinate efforts to reopen the Midwest economy.
• A stimulus program set up to support small businesses ran dry today after less than two weeks. 
• U.S. stocks opened mixed after Asian stocks took a hit from weak U.S. retail and other data. Stay up-to-date on the markets by signing up for The Daily Money.
• A team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was expected to tour the Smithfield Foods meat-processing plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which has become the biggest single source of coronavirus cases in the U.S.
• The United Kingdom announced that it is extending its national lockdown for at least three more weeks.
• Germany, which is Europe's biggest economy, plans to open smaller shops next week and restart some schools in May.
• A study authored by Harvard University researchers suggests that intermittent social distancing might be necessary until 2022 if no vaccine or pharmaceutical treatments for the coronavirus are found.
• Chicago, a recent hot spot of the coronavirus outbreak, is beginning to reduce the rate of new daily cases, city officials announced Wednesday.

Keep sending us your coronavirus questions through this form and we'll continue to answer them! Jim from Freeland, Michigan, asks: How does the overall U.S. death rate compare between last year and this for the same months? Has the curtailed travel lessened the number of overall deaths?

It's too early to say. Just this past January, the CDC released its final data on mortality rates for 2018. We don't have final data for 2019 yet, let alone for 2020.

There's been wide speculation that stay-at-home orders have reduced the nation's overall fatality rate. A study published this month by researchers at UC Davis found that fatal motor vehicle collisions have been cut in half since California instituted its stay-at-home order. Police departments across the nation are reporting a drop in crime rates. And last month was reportedly the first month without a school shooting in the U.S. since 2002.

At the same time, calls for domestic violence have surged, and some cities are reporting high levels of gun violence. Health experts are also warning that economic stress, social isolation and more may affect suicide and overdose rates.

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As always, thank you for subscribing and trusting the Paste BN Network with this important information. 

— Grace Hauck, Breaking News Reporter, @grace_hauck