new york unemployment in the us is swelling to levels last seen during the great depression of the 1930s with 1 in 6 american workers thrown out of a job by the coronavirus according to new data released thursday in response to the deepening economic crisis the house passed a nearly 500 billion spending package to help buckled businesses and hospitalsmore than 44 million laidoff americans applied for unemployment benefits last week the government reported in all roughly 26 million people the population of the 10 biggest us cities combined have now filed for jobless aid in five weeks an epic collapse that has raised the stakes in the debate over how and when to ease the shutdowns of factories and other businessesin the hardesthit corner of the us evidence emerged that perhaps 27 million new york state residents have been infected by the virus 10 times the number confirmed by lab testsa small preliminary statewide survey of around 3000 people found that nearly 14 had antibodies showing they had been infected gov andrew cuomo said just in new york city with a population of 86 million health commissioner oxiris barbot said as many as 1 million may have been infectedin washington many house lawmakers wore face masks and bandannas and some sat in the otherwise vacant visitors gallery to stay away from others as they debated the latest spending package a near unanimous vote sent it to president donald trump in the eveninganchoring the bill is the administrations 250 billion request to replenish a fund to help small and medium size businesses with payroll rent and other expenses trump said the bill will help small businesses to keep millions of workers on the payrollabroad there was mixed news about the epidemic some countries including greece bangladesh and malaysia announced extensions of their lockdowns vietnam new zealand and croatia were among those moving to end or ease such measuresin africa covid19 cases surged 43 in the past week to 26000 according to john nkengasong director of the africa centers for disease control and prevention the figures underscored a recent warning from the world health organization that the virus could kill more than 300000 people in africa and push 30 million into desperate povertybrazils health ministry confirmed 407 deaths due to the outbreak in the last 24 hours a daily high for the countryhuge lines have formed at food banks from el paso texas to the paris suburbs and food shortages are hitting africa especially hardat a virtual summit european union leaders agreed to set up a massive recovery fund to help rebuild the 27nation blocs ravaged economies while no figure was put on the plan officials said 115 trillion euros 1116 trillion would be neededthe coronavirus has killed over 190000 people worldwide including more than 100000 in europe and nearly 50000 in the united states according to a tally compiled by john hopkins university from official government figures the true numbers are almost certainly far higherin the us the economic