More than 6.6 million people filed jobless claims in the week ending 4 April. In total, over the last three weeks, more than 16 million people have made unemployment claims, as restrictions on activity to help contain the virus force most businesses to close and put about 95% of Americans on some form of lockdown. Also in the programme: Britain's prime minister Boris Johnson has been moved out of intensive care after being rushed to hospital earlier last Sunday; and the UN’s World Food Programme has told the BBC that from middle of April it will be forced to halve the aid it provides to Yemenis living in Houthi. (Photo: A person reads a sign on the door of an office of the New York State Department of Labour. Credits: EPA).

Italy's prime minister has told the BBC that the European Union risks failing as a project in the coronavirus crisis. Giuseppe Conte says the EU must act in an adequate and co-ordinated way to help countries worst hit by the virus. Also in the programme: How is the coronavirus affecting Venezuela? And the teacher delivering packed lunches to his students stuck at home. (Image: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte attending a press conference at Palazzo Chigi, Rome. Credit: EPA/Palazzo Chigi)

The World Trade Organisation says the fall in global trade as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic will be worse than following the financial crisis just over ten years ago. Also in the programme: Bernie Sanders quits presidential nomination race. And South African crime gangs join effort to fight coronavirus outbreak. (Picture: Deserted street on outskirts of New Delhi, India, 22 March 2020. (CREDIT: EPA/HARISH TYAGI)

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic originated, is finally lifting its 11-week quarantine as infections and deaths have tailed off. Also in the programme: a top EU official resigns over Covid-19 response; and Paris enacts harsher coronavirus restrictions (Picture: Tears well up in a medical worker during a ceremony as Wuhan's Tianhe Airport reopened. Credit: Getty)

Boris Johnson's second-in-command, foreign minister Dominic Raab says the prime minister remains in good spirits in intensive care and is breathing without the need of a ventilator. Also on the programme: With no new deaths from the disease for 24 hours, China eases its travel restrictions; and the toll the corona crisis is taking on the mental health of frontline US doctors. (Photo: News crews are seen outside St Thomas' Hospital in London. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was transferred to the intensive care unit at the hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened. Credit: Peter Summers/Getty Images)

The Cabinet Office minister, Michael Gove, said Mr Johnson was receiving "oxygen support" but was not on a ventilator. Also in the programme: Australian Cardinal George Pell has been freed from prison, after he was previously convicted of child sexual abuse, and members of the English National Opera have recorded a song about handwashing. (Photo: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on March 25, 2020 Credit: Peter Summers/Getty Images)