US, Europe medical workers struggle to save virus patients

Coronavirus deals end to US hiring; Europe’s hospitals buckle; Spain overtakes Italy in virus cases, death rate slows; EU to fly home another 250,000 nationals stranded by COVID-19

The coronavirus outbreak snapped the United States’ record-breaking hiring streak of nearly 10 years, while US and European medical workers struggling to save ailing patients Friday watched supplies of medicine, protective equipment, and breathing machines dwindle by the hour.

Worldwide, confirmed infections surged past 1 million and deaths topped 54,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Jobs numbers released in the US showed the virus dealt a swift end to the nation’s 50-year-low unemployment rate, with employers reporting hundreds of thousands of job cuts in March.

The true picture, though, is far worse, because the government figures do not include the last two weeks, when nearly 10 million thrown-out of-work Americans applied for unemployment benefits.

Experts say both numbers are seriously undercounted because of the lack of testing, mild cases that were missed and governments that are underplaying the extent of the crisis.