WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. government reported more catastrophic economic fallout from the coronavirus crisis on Friday as the pandemic pierced the very walls of the White House and California gave the green light for its factories to restart after a seven-week lockdown.
A day after the White House confirmed that President Donald Trump’s personal valet had tested positive for the virus, Trump told reporters that Katie Miller, press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence, had also been infected. She is married to senior Trump aide and immigration policy hard-liner Stephen Miller and travels frequently with Pence.
The back-to-back diagnoses of individuals close to Trump, Pence and the White House inner circle raised questions about whether the highest levels of government are adequately safeguarded from infection.
“We’ve taken every single precaution to protect the president,” White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.
Earlier in the day, the Labor Department reported the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 14.7% last month, up from 3.5% in February, demonstrating the speed with which the workforce collapsed after stay-at-home orders meant to curb the outbreak were imposed across most of the country.
Worse economic news may be yet to come. White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said the unemployment rate was likely to climb to around 20% this month. The jobless rate for April already shattered the post-World War Two record of 10.8% set in November 1982.
The economic devastation has heightened the urgency of governors’ efforts to get their states’ economies moving again, even though infection rates and deaths are still rising in parts of the country.
California, the first state to issue stay-at-home orders on March 19, partially reopened shuttered commerce on Friday. Retailers such as bookstores, jewelers, clothing merchants, sporting goods shops and florists were permitted to begin offering curbside pickup and deliveries, while manufacturing and warehouse facilities were allowed to resume operations if they met infection-control requirements.
Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said California had managed to flatten its infection curve in recent weeks, allowing the state to safely proceed with gradually restarting the economy.
(Lucia Mutikani and Maria Caspani contributed to this report)
