Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

The U.S. unemployment rate soared to 14.7% in April, the highest since the Great Depression.

Some 20.5 million jobs were lost in five weeks as the coronavirus pandemic shook the U.S. economy to its core, according to Labor Department numbers released Friday.

“The damage that we’re seeing from the great coronavirus recession is traumatic,” said Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, told the Associated Press. "It's going to take a long time before the labor market recovers to its pre-recession state.”

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The new numbers are from April, but the economy has been sliding since COVID-19 took hold in the U.S. in March. More than 33 million Americans have filed for unemployment.

“In just two months, the unemployment rate has gone from the lowest rate in 50 years to the highest rate in almost 90 years," said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial.

The news came as a second person the vice president's staff tested positive for COVID-19 and two states reported their first instances of children dying from coronavirus.

(WATCH: Florida, Georgia, Alabama Suffer Most Job Losses in Coronavirus Outbreak)

More than 1.2 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 76,000 had died as of Friday afternoon, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Globally, the number of infections has climbed above 3.9 million and more than 272,000 people have died.

Health experts have repeatedly warned that the number of deaths and infections in the U.S. and other countries is likely higher than reported, due to lack of testing, differences in how deaths are recorded and other factors.

Latest Developments

United States:

-Two states reported their first deaths of a child from COVID-19. A child in Virginia is the person under the age of 20 is known to have succumbed to the disease in the state, The Virginian-Pilot reported. The state health department didn't specify the child's age other than to say he or she was 9 or younger. The child lived in Fairfax County. A 4-year-old died in New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said at a Friday afternoon press conference. Further details weren't released.

-A second member of Vice President Mike Pence's staff has tested positive for COVID-19. The White House confirmed the diagnosis Friday, the day after it was reported that one of President Donald Trump's personal valets had tested positive. Politico reported that the staff member is press secretary Katie Miller, citing two sources with knowledge of the situation. A news reporter who was on a flight to Iowa Friday morning with Pence and other staffers tweeted that takeoff was delayed while six officials who had contact with the staffer were removed from the plane. The infected person was not on board, according to the AP. Another Pence staff member tested positive in March.

-States are continuing to announce plans to reopen or move into the next phase of easing restrictions. Among them: Virginia will start reopening on May 15 and barber shops and salons in most parts of Florida can open for business on Monday.

-Apple will begin opening some of it U.S. stores next week, according to CNBC. The first to open will be in Alaska, Idaho, Alabama and South Carolina. Apple only has a handful of stores in those states, and it wasn't clear how many would open. The company said employees will wear face masks and have their temperatures checked, and the number of people allowed inside a store at one time would be limited. The reopened stores will focus on repairs, and buyers are still encouraged to shop online rather than in person.

-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a press conference Friday that at least 216 people died from coronavirus in the state on Thursday. The number is down slightly from previous days, but Cuomo said neither the number of deaths nor hospitalizations was falling as quickly as hoped. New York has so far experienced the largest known outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S., with more than 327,000 confirmed cases and at least 26,144 deaths. Many cases in other parts of the country have been linked to New York.

-Some ski resorts in Oregon plan to reopen after Gov. Kate Brown announced that certain outdoor recreation activities can resume. Brown will likely allow ski resorts to resume operations soon, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. At least one Oregon resort, Timberline Lodge and Ski Area on Mount Hood, offers year-round skiing.

-Seattle is permanently closing some 20 miles of city streets, after they were closed temporarily to allow for greater social distancing among pedestrians and bicyclists during the pandemic.

-West Virginia University is furloughing some employees for up to two months as the university, like others across the nation, struggles to make up for revenue lost after campuses were closed. The university plans to limit on-campus activities for "the foreseeable future," according to a news release.

Worldwide:

-South Korea is pulling back plans to ease social distancing and reopen schools after a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, the AP reported. The government on Friday advised hostess bars and nightclubs to close for a month after a dozen new cases were linked to a club in Seoul. The government is also considering whether to delay reopening schools, scheduled to start next week. The country reported 25 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, the biggest increase in the last five days. South Korea, an early hotspot in the pandemic, has confirmed 10,822 cases and 256 deaths.

-Army officials in Spain, one of the hardest hit countries in the world, said they expect two more waves of coronavirus to rock the country, according to an internal document reviewed by the AP. The document predicts Spain will take up to 18 months to "return to normality."

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.