The government in the Chinese city of Wuhan added 1,290 people to its COVID-19 death toll, bringing the number of deaths there now to 3,869.

Those deaths initially weren't counted because of overwhelmed medical facilities early in the epidemic and some patients died at home without being treated at hospitals, state media Xinhua reported 

There was also belated and mistaken reporting by medical staff amid the height of the epidemic, according to the news agency. Some medical institutions were not linked to an epidemic information network and failed to report data in time, Xinhua said.

Wuhan is the Chinese city where the coronavirus was first detected and where the outbreak that is now a global pandemic began. The new numbers were released by the city's government. 

China's National Health Commission had most recently reported 3,342 deaths linked to COVID-19 on the mainland, but that was before the revision in deaths in Wuhan.

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine president has threatened a martial law-style enforcement of a monthlong lockdown in the main northern region of millions of people as violations soared.

President Rodrigo Duterte said in a late-night televised speech Thursday he would order the military and police to strictly enforce social distancing and curfews if compliance did not improve. Police said they have accosted about 120,000 quarantine violators since last month, including people who engaged in cockfighting and drinking sprees.

“The police and military will enforce social distancing and curfews. They will. It’s like martial law. You choose. I don’t like it,” Duterte said, but added that he may be forced to “if the country gets compromised and you won’t show discipline.”

Duterte, who took office in mid-2016, has been in the crosshairs of human rights groups long before the pandemic started for his bloody anti-drugs crackdown that has left thousands of mostly poor drug suspects dead.

A San Diego doctor was charged Thursday with mail fraud and accused of trying to sell what he called a cure for the coronavirus illness COVID-19, federal prosecutors said.

There is no cure for the illness. Dr. Jennings Ryan Staley, 44, operates Skinny Beach Med Spa and that spa had been advertising via email "COVID-19 treatment packs" that included the drugs hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, the U.S. Attorney's Officer for the District of Southern California said.

Staley also allegedly told a purported customer, who was actually an undercover FBI agent, that the drugs were a "miracle cure" that would not only cure COVID-19 "100 percent" but if someone without the illness took them "you’re immune for at least six weeks."

Officials called it a fraudulent claim. Staley allegedly denied in an FBI interview that the spa was claiming the drugs would cure the illness and that "we would never say anything like that." 

Online court records did not appear to show the case and whether Staley has an attorney who could speak on his behalf Thursday night. The phone number at the spa says it is closed due to statewide orders on non-essential businesses, and an email sent to a media request account seeking comment was not immediately returned.

Less than 24 hours after having consulted with some of the leading corporate executives in America, President Donald Trump surprised many of them with his action plan to reopen the economy, which he suggested Thursday could begin in some states as soon as "tomorrow."

The new federal guidelines, which hand over authority to state governors to determine when their states will open up for business, came just a day after the rushed coordination of more than 200 executives and thought leaders across a number of industries to counsel the president on how to open the economy.

Many of those CEOs told NBC News that they were not aware Thursday that Trump would issue guidelines later in the day.

Read the full story here. 

Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer for President Donald Trump, will be released prematurely from his three-year prison sentence because of concerns of the coronavirus continuing to spread among inmates, his lawyer said Thursday night.

Attorney Roger Bennett Adler said that Cohen, 53, will be released May 1 and allowed to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement. He'll first a two-week quarantine in prison, Adler said.

Cohen was initially set to be released in November 2021. 

The Bureau of Prisons has so far released 1,000 inmates nationwide to prevent the development of COVID-19 behind bars.

Read the full story here.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing said Thursday it will resume plane production starting next week at its Washington state facilities in a "phased approach," after operations had been suspended due to the coronavirus epidemic.

Boeing said the resumption at its Puget Sound area facilities will result in around 27,000 people getting back to work. The facilities have extra safeguards in place to protect employees from the coronavirus illness COVID-19, the company said. 

Among the safeguards will be staggered shift times to reduce the flow of workers, floor markings to help enforce physical distancing, a requirement that all workers have face coverings, and wellness checks before shifts. Employees who can work from home will continue to do, the company said.

Boeing’s shutdown went into effect March 25 after workers tested positive for the virus and a longtime inspector for the company died, The Associated Press reported. Gov. Jay Inslee at the time praised the company for the shutdown and for continuing to pay workers.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom expects to spend up to $7 billion this year battling the coronavirus and the economic disruption it has unleashed, as state budget experts warn lawmakers to prepare for revenue loss akin to the Great Recession.

Newsom has already authorized spending more than $2 billion on things like hotel rooms for the homeless, loans to small businesses and cash payments to adults living in the country illegally who are not eligible for federal stimulus benefits.

The virus’ spread in California has not been as devastating as public health officials had feared, with the growth in hospitalizations slowing as the state has been under a mandatory stay-at-home order for nearly a month that has closed schools and nonessential businesses. But Newsom warned earlier this week that the steady presence of the virus would likely continue to disrupt public life well into the summer and beyond.

Unemployment data reflecting the coronavirus restrictions won’t be available until next month. But Legislative Analyst Gabriel Petek said the number of people who have filed for unemployment benefits — more than 2.7 million as of Wednesday — indicate between 12 percent and 15 percent of Californians have lost their jobs.

When Susan Dorety’s husband, Michael, began developing coronavirus symptoms on the Grand Princess cruise ship in February, she immediately called the vessel's emergency number, but it took multiple calls until a doctor finally came to see him, according to a $1 million federal lawsuit.

Princess Cruise Lines operated two ill-fated cruise ships that sparked international headlines as more than 800 passengers were infected with coronavirus, resulting in at least 10 deaths.

Some passengers of the company’s Diamond Princess and Grand Princess are now taking the cruise line to court, though experts warn that complex and longstanding maritime laws create unique obstacles.

Read the full story here. 

It seemed like a godsend to an unemployed former Mississippi college student: a seemingly secure job with a big federal contractor at a time when the coronavirus crisis was crashing the economy in her state and around the country.

Within days of the orientation, however, Brianna Flores said she was forced to go into quarantine for two weeks because a trainee in her group tested positive for the coronavirus.

The irony is not lost on Flores that the information she was hired to dispense could have prevented her co-worker from getting infected.

Read the full story here. 

Officials across the nation are racing to provide coronavirus tests to diagnose infections and to identify recovered patients with antibodies that may help others battle the disease.

But some COVID-19 antibody tests, including those being used by public health departments in Denver and Los Angeles and provided to urgent care centers in Maryland and North Carolina, were supplied by Chinese manufacturers that are not approved by China's Center for Medical Device Evaluation, a unit of the National Medical Product Administration (NMPA), the country's equivalent to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, NBC News has found.

Two U.S. companies — Premier Biotech of Minneapolis and Aytu Bioscience of Colorado — have been distributing the tests from unapproved Chinese manufacturers, according to health officials, FDA filings, and a spokesman for one of the Chinese manufacturers.

Read the full story here. 

President Donald Trump announced new federal guidelines for reopening the U.S. on Thursday that puts the onus on governors for making decisions about their own state economies.

Under the first phase of the three-phase plan, restaurants, movie theaters and large sporting venues would be appropriate to reopen under certain conditions, while schools, day care centers and bars would not.

It is "implementable on a statewide or county-by-county basis" at the discretion of each state's governor — a stark contradiction from the president's earlier assertion that he had "total authority" to direct governors how and when to reopen.

The guidelines do not suggest any reopening dates.

Read the full story here. 

The 41-year-old sailor from the USS Theodore Roosevelt who died from coronavirus has been identified by the Navy as Aviation Ordnanceman Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

He tested positive on March 30 and was placed in isolation on Naval Base Guam. He was found unresponsive on April 9 and transferred to an ICU.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time," said Capt. Carlos Sardiello, Theodore Roosevelt's commanding officer. "Our number one priority continues to be the health and well-being of all members of the Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group and we remain steadfast in our resolve against the spread of this virus."

Thacker's spouse, an active duty service member stationed in San Diego, was flown to Guam and was with Thacker when he died, according to the Navy.

Denver Broncos star and Super Bowl hero Von Miller has tested positive for coronavirus after coming down with flu-like symptoms, the player and team said Thursday.

The 31-year-old linebacker "elected to share his diagnosis publicly to emphasize that anyone can be afflicted with coronavirus," according to a team statement.

"It’s true," Miller told NBC Denver affiliate KUSA. "I’ve just been here in the crib and I started to get a little cough. You know I have asthma and I started getting a little cough a couple days ago. My girlfriend, she told me when I was asleep, she said my cough it didn’t sound normal."

Read the full story here. 

NBC News' David Gura reports on the state of the stock market as another five million people file for unemployment, bringing the national total to 22 million people in one month.

At least 55 more Los Angeles County residents have died from causes linked to coronavirus, health officials said Thursday, marking a third consecutive day of record-high fatalities.

The death toll from the pandemic had reached 455 by early Thursday afternoon, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health.

Of the 55 new confirmed fatalities, 43 were older than 65 and nine were between the ages of 41 and 65, according to the agency's daily tally.

Across the nation, protests against the stay-at-home orders that health experts say are needed to save lives are taking place, with more set for the coming days.

This week, about 100 protesters gathered outside the Ohio statehouse in Columbus to push for Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to reopen the state. In Raleigh, more than 100 demonstrators gathered to protest Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper's stay-at-home order, where at least one protester was charged with violating the order. In New York, a few dozen people gathered Thursday outside the state Capitol in Albany to rally for returning to normal. Kentucky, Utah and Wyoming also saw similar protests.

Read the full story here. 

President Trump held an event to honor the efforts of truck drivers amid the coronavirus pandemic and said that they were "carrying us to victory" over the outbreak.

The number of unemployed Americans continues to climb with another 5 million people filing jobless claims last week, bringing the total number of people applying for unemployment to 22 million in the last month.

But an unsettling undercurrent of that number is the amount of people who are also losing access to health insurance because they lost their job. Approximately 9.2 million workers have likely lost their employer-provided health care coverage in the past four weeks, an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute concluded.   

Two weeks ago, the nonprofit think tank concluded that nearly 3.5 million among the 8.7 million claims  likely lost their employer coverage.  An additional 11.4 million people have since applied for unemployment, with the biggest losses of insurance coming from the health care/social assistance, manufacturing and retail sectors.

NBC News previously reported that states are bracing for an increase in the number of people who have applied for Medicaid, the public health care coverage option, since the coronavirus pandemic caused states to shutter businesses and caused workers to lose access to their insurance.

President Donald Trump will announce his framework for reopening the U.S. on Thursday as governors across the country have begun discussing plans to ease some of the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

A coordinated pull-back on the social distancing measures that have shuttered businesses across the country would, in effect, reopen parts of the economy.

As of Thursday, more than 32,000 people have died in the U.S. from the coronavirus. In addition, more than 22 million people have filed for unemployment insurance over the last four weeks, as the job market in every sector of the economy continued to be devastated by the pandemic.

Read the full story here. 

More than 80 inmates have tested positive for cornavirus at an Indiana prison, according to NBC South Bend affiliate WNDU. 

Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box discussed the growing outbreak at the Westville Correctional Facility in northwest Indiana, saying people in the prison who have tested positive are being isolated.

A man incarcerated in the Indiana prison died of the virus this week, renewing a push by civil liberties groups to release those incarcerated who are at-risk, a move the governor opposes.

One of the nation’s foremost experts on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, gave baseball fans hope this week when he said that a season could start amid the coronavirus pandemic if games are played in empty stadiums and players are sequestered in hotels.

“Put (players) in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during part of an interview with Peter Hamby on the Snapchat show, "Good Luck America." “Have them tested every single week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family, just let them play the season out.”

Read the full story here. 

Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Thursday his intention to "start opening Ohio back up," saying the first phase of the planned reopening would begin on May 1. 

DeWine said at a press conference things are "going to be different," according to NBC affiliate WSAZ, with masks and social distancing becoming standard in the workplace.

Dr. Amy Acton with the Ohio Department of Health said, "The path ahead will consist of several phases and there is a lot of things that you can do to help us continue to flatten the curve, such as great hygiene and wearing a face mask while out in public."

As of Thursday afternoon, Ohio reported 8,414 cases 389 deaths due to coronavirus.

Facebook is canceling all of its scheduled physical events with 50 or more people through June 2021, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Thursday.

"Some of these we will hold as virtual events instead and we'll share more details on that soon," Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook. "Similarly, we're extending our policy of no business travel through at least June of this year as well."

Zuckerberg also said the "vast majority" of the company's employees would continue to work from home "through at least the end of May."

"A small percent of our critical employees who can't work remotely, like content reviewers working on counter-terrorism or suicide and self-harm prevention, and engineers working on complex hardware, may be able to return sooner, but overall, we don't expect to have everyone back in our offices for some time," he said.

Seven midwestern governors announced Thursday they are forming a regional pact to plan for the reopening of their respective economies.

Those governors include Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Mike DeWine of Ohio, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Tim Walz of Minnesota, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Andy Beshear of Kentucky. DeWine and Holcomb are Republicans, while the other five are Democrats.

"Our number one priority when analyzing when best to reopen our economy is the health and safety of our citizens," the governors said in a joint statement. "We will make decisions based on facts, science, and recommendations from experts in health care, business, labor, and education."

The governors listed four factors they will consider when determining when to reopen — sustained control in the rate of new infections and hospitalizations, enhanced testing and tracing ability, sufficient capacity in the health care system to handle a resurgence and guidance for best practices for social distancing in the workplace.

The announcement comes after seven governors of northeastern states announced a similar pact earlier this week, as did three states along the Pacific coast. President Donald Trump said earlier this week he is deferring to the governors on reopening plans, though his administration has created working groups to offer guidance and assistance.

The New Orleans Jazz Fest 2020 announced that its fall reschedule date has been cancelled and the next concert won't occur until 2021.

"With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to evolve unpredictably—and out of an abundance of caution for the health and safety of our community, including musicians, fans, participants, and staff—Jazz Fest 2020 will not occur this fall, as previously announced," the organization said.

The event was originally supposed to begin this April, but it was postponed as COVID-19 rapidly spread throughout Louisiana.

"It takes something truly momentous to interrupt a 50-year New Orleans tradition as special as the Festival, but we feel strongly that the most prudent course right now is to allow more time for the situation to stabilize," the group said. 

The White House is exploring ways of dramatically increasing coronavirus testing in the U.S., as President Donald Trump’s aides scramble to put measures in place that might make it feasible for him to meet his goal of reopening the economy in parts of the country by May 1, according to four people familiar with the efforts.

Multiple ideas are under consideration for increasing diagnostic testing and testing for coronavirus antibodies as well as how to target those tests to geographic areas and specific industries to open as much of the economy as possible, these people said.

Read the full story here.

The U.K. will extend its nationwide lockdown measures for at least three more weeks, Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Thursday.  

Speaking at his government's daily coronavirus briefing, Raab, who is deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he recovers from COVID—19, said: "Any change to our social distancing measures now would risk a significant increase in the spread of the virus."

Relaxing the rules could cause a "second peak" which would risk increasing deaths "substantially," he said. He added that he could not give a "definitive timeframe" for when the measures would be lifted because it would not "be a responsible thing to do."

Connie Titchen, a 106-year-old great-grandmother from Birmingham, England, was released from the hospital this week after enduring a three-week battle with COVID-19. She is believed to be Britain’s oldest patient to recover from the coronavirus, according to the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust. 

Video posted on social media shows health care workers at City Hospital lining the hallway to applaud Titchen as she was discharged.

“I feel very lucky that I’ve fought off this virus. I can’t wait to see my family,” Titchen said in a statement released by the NHS. Born in 1913, Titchen has lived through two World Wars and the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he is extending the state's shutdown to May 15.

"What happens after then? I don't know," Cuomo said at a news conference Thursday. "We will see depending on what the data shows."

The governor said the decision to "unpause" New York "is going to be an ongoing process that we're working through with other states" in the region.

Cuomo also said he received some complaints about his order this week requiring New Yorkers to wear masks or face coverings in public.

"I'm sorry it makes people unhappy," the governor said. But, he said, he doesn't consider the order "a major burden, and it really is a simple measure that can save lives."

"Remember, it's not just about you, right?," he said. Others have rights. "And you have a right for another person to take reasonable safeguards not to get infected." 

The U.S. intelligence community is examining whether the virus that caused a global pandemic emerged accidentally from a Chinese research lab studying diseases in bats, current and former U.S. intelligence officials tell NBC News.

Spy agencies have ruled out that the novel coronavirus was manmade, the officials say. But scientists at a military and a civilian lab in Wuhan, where the virus originated, are known to have conducted ongoing research on coronaviruses, officials say. They say intelligence agencies have gathered and are weighing evidence that an employee of one of the labs could have become accidentally infected and left the facility with the virus.

Read the full report here.

The Small Business Administration has run out of money for the Paycheck Protection Program, it said in a statement.

"The SBA is currently unable to accept new applications for the Paycheck Protection Program based on available appropriations funding," the statement read. "Similarly, we are unable to enroll new PPP lenders at this time."

A group of House Democrats is urging the Trump administration to track and publicly report coronavirus infections in nursing homes around the country. "We fear that there may be hundreds if not thousands more COVID-19 cases that have gone unreported," Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., wrote in a letter to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.

The federal government does not keep a formal tally of coronavirus cases in nursing homes. An NBC News investigation this week found more than 5,600 deaths linked to long-term care facilities in 29 states, but limited testing and some states’ refusal to disclose data means that the national death toll is likely far higher.

Read the full story here.

A growing mix of health and technology experts are convinced that if the United States is to ever effectively track the coronavirus and slow its spread, then both self-reported and more surreptitiously gathered personal data — a mix of information about location, travel, symptoms and health conditions ― must be gathered from millions of Americans.

With the pandemic far from over, public health needs are paramount. Public health experts say that collecting personal data may be the only way to analyze information on the massive scale needed. But how that information is used and by whom worries some privacy advocates.

Read the full story here.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that 606 more people (577 in hospitals and 29 in nursing homes) had died in the state, the lowest number in more than a week. 

"We've been watching the nursing homes because nursing homes are in many ways ground zero," Cuomo said at a news conference. 

Cuomo said the number of people admitted to intensive care units at hospitals "is down significantly for the first time" and that less people had been intubated. Cuomo said New York would be sending 100 ventilators to New Jersey. 

New York City's public outdoor pools will be closed this summer because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said at his news conference on Thursday. 

He also said he does not think beaches will open anytime soon to prevent large crowds of people. De Blasio said until there is a better understanding of the virus, he does not want to create a situation that would encourage people to gather. 

"If we bring out lifeguards and it's a situation where people think it's safe to go to the beach and it's safe to start resuming normalcy, it's going to endanger people, based on what we know now," he said. "So, no, right now we do not have a plan to open the beaches just like we don't have a plan to open the pools." 

Almost 14,000 patients have died in British hospitals after testing positive for coronavirus as of 5 p.m. local time (12 p.m. ET) on Wednesday, the U.K.'s Department of Health said Thursday. 

This was up by 861 from 12,868 the day, bringing the total to 13,729. 

The Department of Health said that, as of 9 a.m. on Thursday, 327,608 people had been tested, of which 103,093 tested positive. Overall, 417,649 tests have concluded. 

Ivanka Trump and her family traveled to the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey last week to celebrate Passover despite federal guidelines that advise against nonessential travel and a stay-at-home order is in effect in Washington, D.C., according to The New York Times.

The president's eldest daughter went with her husband, Trump adviser Jared Kushner, and their three young children, to the Trump golf club in Bedminster, two people with knowledge of their travel plans told the Times, which reported on them Wednesday night. The family lives in Washington's Kalorama neighborhood in the northwest part of the city.

Read the full story here.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called on President Donald Trump for more federal stimulus money. 

"The federal government was very quick to bail out the banks a decade ago, no questions asked. The federal government was very quick to bail out the auto industry. How about bailing out the nation's largest city? How about bailing out the epicenter of this crisis, where people have been suffering," he said at a news conference Thursday.

According to the mayor, there are currently negotiations for another stimulus package with a focus on small business and paycheck protection. De Blasio said on the table is $100 billion for hospitals and health care workers, $150 billion for states and localities based on need, and $250 billion for small businesses. 

De Blasio slammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for being a "roadblock" to the city's getting the funding it needs. 

"He has to hear our plea. He has to understand what it means for human beings that he's not allowing the kind of aid to flow that we need," the mayor said, adding, "It's clearly time for President Trump to speak up."

"Saturday Night Live" comedian Michael Che announced that he's going to pay the rent for people living in a New York City public housing building where his grandmother, who died of coronavirus, lived.

"it's crazy to me that residents of public housing are still expected to pay their rent when so many new yorkers can't even work," he wrote in an Instagram post on Wednesday.

Che, 36, said he would cover the rent for all 160 units in the building.

Read the full story here.

An anonymous tip led to the discovery of 17 bodies crowded into a four-person morgue at one of New Jersey’s largest nursing homes.

Police found the bodies this week at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II in Sussex County, in northwest New Jersey, Rep. Josh Gottheimer confirmed to NBC New York. Sixty-eight people linked to Andover, NJ nursing home have died in recent weeks, including two staff members.

“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” Eric C. Danielson, the town’s chief of police, told The New York Times.

Read the full story here.

From Detroit to New York, nearly every city in the country is facing lower revenues as a result of the coronavirus. That's leading to painful cuts to city services, as well as layoffs and furloughs. 

In Detroit, the outbreak has stolen an estimated $348 million from the city's budget for the next 16 months — nearly a quarter of the money the city had been counting on.

"We expected a downturn, and we prepared for it," Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said this week as he announced layoffs for all of the city's 200 part-time or seasonal employees, as well as steep pay cuts or reduced hours for more than 2,200 full-time staffers. "We didn't expect it to be this sudden or this dire."

Read the full story here. 

There have been 18 extra-judicial killings in Nigeria by security forces while the country has been under coronavirus lockdown, according to the country's National Human Rights Commission, more than the number of people who have died from the virus so far.

The commission said the killings were a "display of impunity and reckless disregard for human life in law enforcement by security personnel." Most of the deaths occurred in the northern Kaduna state.

The report, published late Wednesday, found 105 human rights complaints since the lockdown began on March 30, including excessive use of force, abuse of power and corruption by security forces — with Lagos State recording the highest number of incidents.

Joe Biden said Thursday that the decision between protecting people’s health from coronavirus and reopening the U.S. economy is a “false choice” because you can't do one without the other.

In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” co-host Willie Geist asked the former vice president what he would say to people who might favor a move by President Donald Trump to reopen the economy soon if it means they can get back to work and put food on the table.

“I say we should not send you back to work till it’s safe to send you back to work. This is a false choice,” said Biden, who was speaking from his home in Delaware, sitting next to his wife, Jill Biden.

“The way you revive the economy is you defeat the disease,” he said.

Read the full story here.

Facebook will begin to alert users after they’ve been exposed to misinformation about the coronavirus, the company announced Thursday, the latest in a series of actions meant to curtail the spread of wrong or misleading claims related to the pandemic.

Users who have liked, commented on or reacted to coronavirus misinformation that has been flagged as “harmful” by Facebook and removed will now be directed to a website debunking coronavirus myths from the World Health Organization.

Read the full story here.

Amazon closed six of its warehouses in France on Thursday in one of the biggest fallouts yet from a growing stand-off with its workers over safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic.

This comes as a French court ruled Tuesday that Amazon had to carry out a more thorough assessment of the risk of coronavirus contagion at its warehouses and should restrict its deliveries in the meantime, or face a fine. It ordered the company to limit deliveries to essential goods, such as food and medical supplies.

The director-general of Amazon France, Frederic Duval, rejected the court's order on Thursday, saying the company had spent "colossal investments" to ensure the safety of their employees in warehouses. The firm will appeal the decision, he said in a radio interview.

In a statement on Thursday, the union said it would continue to work for the recognition of the health and security of workers facing COVID-19.

The number of people filing for unemployment benefits in the Netherlands soared 42 percent in March as many businesses were shut down in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

The Dutch federal employment agency on Thursday said it had paid benefits to 37,800 new unemployed in March, an increase of 11,200 from the month before.

The strongest increases were among people who used to work in restaurants and bars and among people under 25 years of age, the agency said.

The Dutch government on March 15 ordered all restaurants, bars, museums, sport facilities and other public places in the Netherlands to shut down in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan will extend its current coronavirus state of emergency, in place in seven regions including Tokyo and Osaka, to cover the rest of the country, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday.

"We will expand the state of emergency issued on April 7th from the current 7 prefectures to all prefectures. This will be in effect until May 6th, as we have previously announced," Abe said during an address.

Unlike other countries, the state of emergency in Japan remains non-compulsory and is a strong request from the government for people to stay at home in a bid to limit the spread of the virus — especially as the country prepares for its national golden week holiday beginning at the end of this month.  

The president of the European Commission — the executive branch of the European Union — offered an apology to Italy on Thursday, saying the country did not receive adequate help at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Yes it is true that no one was really ready for this," Ursula von der Leyen said in an address to the European Parliament. "It is also true that too many were not there on time when Italy needed a helping hand at the very beginning. And yes for that, it is right that Europe as a whole offers a heartfelt apology."

Saying that while “there are no words that can do justice to Europe's pain,” von der Leyen also looked ahead in her address. She discussed ways the E.U. planned to support and reshape industries, and invest in digital technologies, infrastructure and the European Green Deal.

While countries across Europe have suffered from the virus outbreak, Italy has been hit the hardest, particularly in the earlier weeks of the outbreak. More than 21,000 people have died in Italy as of Thursday, the highest death toll in Europe. The country has begun to ease some lockdown measures this week. 

President Donald Trump has heaped further criticism on China over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, questioning the accuracy of its official death toll and saying he was looking into an unverified theory that the infection originated in a Chinese laboratory.

"Do you really believe those numbers in this vast country called China. … Does anybody really believe that?" Trump said when asked at the White House daily news briefing Wednesday why the U.S. has the highest numbers of official coronavirus deaths and cases in the world.

"Some countries are in big, big trouble and they're not reporting the facts — and that's up to them," he said.

Read the full story here. 

While hand-washing with soap and water has been advocated worldwide to keep the coronavirus at bay, some 74 million people in the Middle East lack access to a sink, soap or basic water facilities at home, a United Nations report published Thursday found.

Refugees and those in conflict areas were especially at risk, the report said, living with inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene services.

In the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, only one in 10 households has access to clean water, the U.N. said. Women and girls in rural areas and informal settlements, who usually undertake the water collection task, were being put at greater risk.

A 99-year-old war veteran has raised more than 13 million British pounds (about $16 million) for the National Health Service by walking laps around his garden.

Tom Moore, a former captain who turns 100 at the end of the month, has long surpassed his original target to raise 1,000 pounds by walking the length of his garden in Bedfordshire, England, a hundred times before his 100th birthday. 

Health care workers across the U.K. have raised concerns about the lack of safety equipment to protect them from getting infected while helping coronavirus patients. 

So far, nearly 13,000 people have died of COVID-19, the disease the virus cases, in the U.K., with the nationwide tally of confirmed cases now standing at 98,476.

Around 5 million more people filed for first-time unemployment claims last week, as the job market in every sector of the economy continues to be devastated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The staggering weekly total comes as President Donald Trump weighs plans to pull back on the social distancing measures that have shuttered businesses across the country, and reopen parts of the economy as soon as May 1.

State-mandated lockdowns have choked vast portions of the once-booming economy, kicking a new total of 22 million people out of work and launching the nation into the worst crisis since the Great Depression.

Read the full story here.

People around the world are celebrating rare opportunities to leave the house by dressing in their finest clothes to take out the trash.

Followers of the trend from New South Wales to New York are sharing photos online of themselves donning prom dresses, superman costumes and their Sunday best to make the most of a rare trip outside, during the coronavirus crisis. One woman even wore her old wedding dress for the task.

"So basically the bin goes out more than us, SO let’s dress up for the occasion!" wrote Facebook group Bin Isolation Outing founder Danielle Askew, 47, from Hervey Bay in Queensland, Australia.

Read the full story here. 

Japanese automaker Nissan will start making face shields for health care workers in Japan, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Nissan said it will make around 2,500 shields a month, adding that it was looking into whether it was able to support other companies that manufacture ventilators and artificial heart-lung machines. 

The company said it had also started similar initiatives in other countries including the U.K. and Spain. In the U.S., the company is making protective face shields for health care workers in Michigan, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Jeff Bezos, founder of online retailer Amazon, has outlined the company's aim to begin testing staff for coronavirus.

"If every person could be tested regularly, it would make a huge difference in how we fight this virus," Bezos said in his annual letter to shareholders published Thursday. "Those who test positive could be quarantined and cared for, and everyone who tests negative could re-enter the economy with confidence."

The company, which has come under criticism for not adequately protecting workers during the crisis, has set up a team to begin incremental testing and begun assembling equipment to build Amazon's first lab to test "small numbers of our frontline employees," Bezos said. 

 

Nearly half of adults in the U.K. are suffering from high levels of anxiety after three weeks of nationwide lockdown to stem the coronavirus epidemic, according to a survey from Britain's national statistics office.

The survey, which polled 1,581 adults between March 27 and April 6, also showed that four in five people said they were very worried or somewhat worried about the effect that the coronavirus is having on their life right now. Just over half said it was affecting their well-being.

The survey covered a time period after the U.K. government imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 23. It's expected the lockdown will be extended on Thursday. 

Australia will keep in place restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus for at least four more weeks, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, despite signs that Canberra has been successful in slowing infection rates.

Morrison said Australia will over the next month expand testing, improve its capacity to trace contacts of known coronavirus cases and plan a response to any further local outbreaks.

Morrison said these three steps will be finished within four weeks, and Australia will then review the restrictions that include curtailing the movements of residents, and the closures of schools, restaurants and pubs.

Banksy published a series of pictures showing rats causing mayhem during lockdown, with the caption: “My wife hates it when I work from home."

The elusive and anonymous England-based street artist published five pictures on his Instagram account on Wednesday showing graffitied rats — which have featured in several of his pieces — stepping on toothpaste, swinging from the mirror and generally wreaking havoc in his bathroom.

On the front lines of the coronavirus crisis that has swept through New York City, a medical resident in Brooklyn decided to write about dealing with a historic pandemic at what is an early and critical time in the career of a doctor.

"Throughout these last couple of weeks I've hit a whole range of emotions," the resident, who works at several hospitals in Brooklyn, wrote in text shared with NBC News. "There have been multiple days where I'd come home and just feel … defeated."

"As this is going on, it feels like no matter what you do, what treatment you give, you are slowly watching someone die," the resident wrote in the passage.

Medical residents in New York City described their fears and hopes to NBC News and said they never imagined they would have to bear witness to so much death this early in their careers. 

Read the full story. 

The Minister of Bavaria Markus Soder is “very skeptical” that Oktoberfest, the world’s largest beer festival, will happen this fall, he told German public broadcaster BR on Thursday.

He “cannot imagine such a large event at this time,” Soeder said in reference to the coronavirus pandemic.

Oktoberfest is held annually in Bavaria’s capital Munich, with the tradition beginning in 1810.

Organizers said they expected to make a decision on the festival in June at the latest. 

An empathic woman out of her house to comfort her friend whose chicken had died. A grief-struck man visiting his grandma at the cemetery while the woman is well and alive at home. A woman walking her tortoise in the park.  

In Italy, where the government has enforced some of the most strict lockdown restrictions in the world to curb the spread of the coronavirus, people have come up with some unlikely excuses to get out of the house. 

From the man walking his son’s stuffed animal to the couple candidly admitting that their love couldn’t keep them apart, the stories caught the attention of a Rome-based journalist, Salvatore Dama, who started a daily top-ten list of the most tragicomic reasons Italians found to defy the lockdown. 

His daily Facebook lists, based on local news reports, became so popular that he decided to turn them into an e-book, with proceeds going towards a hospital in Bergamo, one of the hardest-hit cities in Italy.  

The number of reported coronavirus deaths in long-term care facilities has more than doubled to 5,670 since last week, according to state health data gathered by NBC News, driven by huge increases in hard-hit states like New York, where more than two percent of nursing home residents have died of the virus.

The death count is based on data from 29 state health departments and includes nursing homes, assisted living and other long-term care facilities. An NBC News investigation published last week found 2,246 deaths associated with long-term care facilities in 24 states.

There are now 3,466 long-term care facilities in 39 states with known coronavirus infections, according to state data – nearly 1,000 more facilities than state officials reported to NBC News last week.

Read the full story. 

Germany will begin to reopen some shops and schools as of next week as it moves to ease lockdown restrictions imposed to stem the spread of the coronavirus epidemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Wednesday. 

Merkel said some businesses of up to 800 square meters (8,600 square feet) in size will be allowed to reopen as early as next Monday. Schools are set to reopen after May 3. 

“We have achieved something that wasn’t sure at the beginning, that our doctors, our nurses, everybody who’s working in hospitals, have not been overwhelmed,” she said. “Our healthcare system has held up.” 

However, Merkel warned that this is a “fragile interim result,” and citizens would have to continue living with the virus until there is a medication, and ideally a vaccine.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s ruling party won an absolute majority in parliamentary elections, results on Thursday showed, a landslide victory propelled by successes in the country’s efforts to contain the coronavirus epidemic.

The election was watched around the world as one of the first nationwide votes since the pandemic began.

Authorities took stringent safety measures, disinfecting all 14,000 polling stations and requiring voters to wear masks, have their temperatures checked, use hand sanitizer and plastic gloves and maintain a safe distance from others.

Driven by record high participation in early voting over the weekend, turnout was 66.2%, higher than any parliamentary elections held since 1992, according to the National Election Commission. About 2,800 coronavirus patients were allowed to vote by mail or in person, using special booths, while more than 13,000 in self-quarantine cast their ballots after polls closed.

President Donald Trump will hold a video teleconference with G7 leaders on Thursday to coordinate national responses to the coronavirus pandemic, the White House said on Wednesday.

Trump — who is head of the G7 this year — had planned to hold this year’s summit at the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, in June, but moved it to a virtual setting due to the virus.

Later in the day, Trump will be holding a call with the U.S. Senate and House members and governors, where he is expected to discuss COVID-19 response and economic revival, according to the brief.

The Group of Seven nations includes the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Canada, Japan and Germany — all have been hit hard by the virus.

Los Angeles Rams center Brian Allen tested positive for the coronavirus illness COVID-19 three weeks ago, the team confirmed Wednesday night.

He appears to be the first NFL player confirmed to have tested positive for the illness.

Allen, 24, who was selected in the 2018 NFL draft, earlier in the day told Fox Sports' Jay Glazer that he woke up and couldn't smell anything, lost his sense of taste and had flu-like symptoms.

"He is 'feeling good, he's healthy and he's on the road to recovery,'" the Rams tweeted Wednesday night. That statement is from Rams head coach Sean McVay's comments to Glazer, according to a post on the team's website. McVay said that after the positive test the team shut down its facility immediately.

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton announced in March that he tested positive for the coronavirus, and at the time he was said to be the first major figure within the league to test positive for the virus.

A home version of the SAT college entrance exam is being prepared in case schools remain closed into the fall, College Board officials said Wednesday as they announced the cancellation of June testing.

Instead of a paper-and-pencil test given under proctors’ supervision, the home version would be digital and rely on “remote proctoring.” That could include using the computer’s camera and microphone to monitor movement or talking, College Board President Jeremy Singer said on a conference call with reporters.

The rival ACT also will launch an at-home option in late fall or early winter, the exam’s administrators said Wednesday.

“We would much prefer that schools reopen but we are ready to innovate and deliver in the unlikely case we need to,” College Board Chief Executive David Coleman said.

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo's wife Cristina also has the coronavirus, he said on his program Wednesday.

Chris Cuomo, 49, announced March 31 that he had tested positive. He has been doing his shows from his basement where he is quarantined.

"It's very rare for a family to be one-and-done," Cuomo said in a discussion with his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "Cristina now has COVID. She is now positive. And it just breaks my heart."

"It is the one thing I was hoping wouldn't happen, and now it has," the anchor said. Their children are healthy, he tweeted, adding that he can't wait for his fever to end so he can help his wife as she has done for him.

Chris Cuomo earlier this month said that having the illness is "no cakewalk" even for those who don't require hospitalization, that he lost 13 pounds in three days, and he said people should not be nonchalant.