COVID-19 News from Around the Web

Although the US economy has shown signs of improvement in recent weeks as lockdown restrictions have eased, millions of Americans are still seeking unemployment aid to make ends meet. Another 1.5 million workers filed for first-time jobless benefits last week, the Department of Labor said Thursday. Initial claims have been falling every week since peaking at 6.9 million in the last week of March. Economists think this means that most job losses due to the pandemic are behind us. Overall, more than 45 million Americans have now for first-time benefits since mid-March. Stripping out the seasonal adjustments, initial claims stood at 1.4 million last week. These adjustments smooth out the data in normal times but add unnecessary noise in this unprecedented situation.

Vice President Mike Pence says the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic is “a cause for celebration,” but a new poll finds more than half of Americans calling it fair or poor. The Gallup and West Health survey out Thursday found that 57% of U.S. adults rated the national response to COVID-19 as fair or poor, particularly in light of the fact that America has the world’s most expensive health care system. The numbers amount to a flashing warning for President Donald Trump and his White House team, eager to change the narrative from projections that show a growing number of U.S. pandemic deaths to a story of American resilience and economic revitalization that reinforces his reelection bid.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, says the United States is still in its first wave of the coronavirus pandemic – a warning that comes as states reopen despite rising case numbers. "People keep talking about a second wave," Fauci said in an interview Tuesday with The Wall Street Journal. "We're still in a first wave." At least 19 states have seen new COVID-19 cases go up in the last two weeks, and six states on Tuesday reported record-high single-day jumps in new cases, CBS News' Manuel Bojorquez reported.

When the coronavirus flared in China’s capital this week, Beijing canceled flights, suspended reopenings and described the situation as “extremely grave.” But with cases rising in some U.S. states, local officials have balked at even requiring people to wear masks. In the United States, which has the most confirmed cases and deaths in the world, authorities wrestled Wednesday with balancing demands for constitutional rights and personal freedom with warnings from health officials that being lax will have deadly consequences.