April 2 coronavirus news

At least 6.6 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits in the week ended March 28.

It was the highest number of initial claims filed in history, surpassing last week’s 3.3 million claims.

Conrad Buchanan, a 39-year-old Florida DJ, died after testing positive for the coronavirus. He performed for hundreds of people the week before he got sick.

His wife, Nicole, said he didn’t have any underlying health issues and she had trouble getting him tested. He started feeling unwell on March 14, but wasn’t admitted into the hospital until March 22.

“I never got to say ‘I love you,’” Nicole Buchanan said. 

His daughter, Skye, said her father took her to daddy-daughter dances and watched superhero movies with her.

“We just, overall, shared everything. He brought me to school, he brought me to ballet. Like, he was my everything,” she said.  

Skye said her dad would sing Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” — which contains the lyrics “don't worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing gonna be all right” — to help her fall asleep at night. She said the song makes her “feel closer with him.”

Nicole Buchanan said everyone needs to take coronavirus seriously and the virus doesn’t just affect older individuals or those with underlying health conditions. She has also tested positive for the virus.

Skye says her dad would want people to remember him and live like he did: “Find your rhythm in life, listen to the beat, dance and express yourself in order to connect with people from all walks of life.”

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While models show that the coronavirus pandemic could result in about 100,000 to 200,000 deaths in the United States, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the country can avoid reaching that milestone by taking aggressive measures.

“It’s within our power to modify those numbers," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on “CBS This Morning."

Boeing says it will offer employees a voluntary layoff plan and hopes to avoid mandatory workforce cuts.

CEO Dave Calhoun wrote in a memo to employees today that the voluntary layoff plan will give those employees to choose to leave a pay and benefits package.

The memo said details will be available within the next four weeks.

It said the measures would "bridge us to recovery as long as we're not confronted with more unexpected challenges."

A prestigious scientific panel told the White House last night that research shows coronavirus can be spread not just by sneezes or coughs, but also just by talking, or possibly even just breathing. 

He said his letter was sent in response to a query from Kelvin Droegemeier with the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the White House.  

"This letter responds to your question concerning the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread by conversation, in addition to sneeze/cough-induced droplets," the letter states. "Currently available research supports the possibility that [coronavirus] could be spread via bioaerosols generated directly by patients' exhalation," it continues.  

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus spreads from person to person when people are within about six feet of each other. It spreads "through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes."  

Fineberg told CNN this is true — but that research shows that aerosolized droplets produced by talking or possibly even by just breathing can also spread the virus.  

Fineberg said it's possible that aerosolized coronavirus droplets can hang in the air and potentially infect someone who walks by later. How long coronavirus lingers in the air depends on several factors, including how much virus an infected individual puts out when breathing or talking, and also on the amount of circulation in the air, he said. 

He added, however, that coronavirus is not as infectious as measles or tuberculosis.

Germany will need “billions of masks” to fight its coronavirus outbreak, the Bavarian state premier Markus Soder said Thursday.

“In the long run, we will need enormous amounts of masks,” Soder said. “I believe that in the end we will need billions of masks in Germany.”

He said the masks would initially be needed by medical staff and then the elderly people in nursing homes.

Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn wants the country to become less dependent on masks made elsewhere, advocating that Germany should make more.

“We must become more independent of the world market, for the security of our citizens. That is one of the lessons of these weeks. We want to encourage companies with a purchase guarantee until the end of 2021 to set up production of protective masks in Germany,” he said on Twitter.

The number of coronavirus cases in Germany is continuing to rise rapidly. The worse-affected region is Bavaria, which has more than 18,000 confirmed cases and 268 deaths, according to data from the Robert Koch Institute.

Bavaria became the first German state to implement a lockdown on public life in an attempt to curb coronavirus spread.

The UK’s largest supermarket, Tesco, confirmed to CNN it had rolled out a radio advert and social media campaign on Wednesday asking people to “think before you click and shop in store, if you can do safely."

Around the UK people have been ordering shopping online in a bid to adhere to social distancing rules -- including those who are not in an at-risk category.

As a result supermarkets in the UK have been struggling to keep up with a significant increase in demand for grocery products and currently there is a long wait for anyone wanting to book a delivery slot at any supermarket. 

The UK's coronavirus regulations ban people from leaving their homes apart from for a few limited reasons, which include going shopping for essential items.

The guidelines urge “vulnerable” customers -- including the elderly and those with preexisting health conditions -- to stay at home. 

Sales at UK supermarkets grew more than 20% in the four weeks to March 22, according to retail data and insights company Kantar -- making March the biggest month of grocery sales recorded by the firm in over a decade.

Another 124 coronavirus-related deaths were reported in Iran on Thursday, bringing the total death toll to 3,160, Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpoor said on state TV.

The overall number of cases in the country meanwhile reached 50,468, with an extra 2,875 reported over the past 24 hours, Jahanpoor said. 

A total of 16,711 patients have recovered and been released from hospitals across the country, while 3,965 hospitalized patients remain in critical condition, he added.

Iran has been the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, trailing only China, the United States and four European nations in Johns Hopkins University's tally of total confirmed cases.

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta apologized Wednesday for violence and harsh tactics used by police last week to enforce a nationwide coronavirus curfew.  

Police have been accused of using batons and tear gas to disperse crowds in the city of Mombasa to enforce the curfew. 

"I know especially when we introduced the curfew, maybe in the initial stages, there were some challenges," Kenyatta said in a televised speech.

"And I want to apologize to all Kenyans maybe for some excesses that were conducted or happened," he said. "But I want to assure you, that if we work together, if we all understand that this problem needs all of us, and if we all pull in the same direction, we will overcome." 

According to the latest figures by Johns Hopkins University, there have been 81 confirmed coronavirus cases in Kenya and one death.