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Families across the U.S. will get a portion of money from the federal government's sweeping $2 trillion stimulus package. But how much? USA TODAY

On the day some Americans could begin receiving stimulus checks from the federal government amid the coronavirus pandemic that has eroded the country's financial footing, economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict the Labor Department will report another 5.5 million initial claims for unemployment insurance.

A record 6.6 million people sought benefits for the report issued a week ago after 3.3 million claims, then a record, were reportedthe previous week.

Also Thursday, astronauts launched for the International Space Station after a "strict quarantine." And the Trump administration loosened restrictions on essential workers.

The U.S. death toll was nearing 15,000 early Thursday, with more than430,000 confirmed cases, according tothe Johns Hopkins University data dashboard. Worldwide, there are close to 1.5million confirmed cases and more than 88,500 deaths.

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Much-awaited stimulus cash will beginflooding into millions of bank accounts next week in the first wave of payouts to shore up the nation's wallets.Millions of taxpayers will begin receiving the extra money to pay rent, groceries and other bills next week, or possibly as early as Thursday or Friday.The first group estimated to cover 50 million to 60million Americans would include people who have already given their bank account information to the Internal Revenue Service.

The first group also would includeSocial Security beneficiaries who filed federal tax returns that included direct deposit information, according to an alert put out today by U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich. Dingell's announcementsaid the expectation is that the first direct deposits would hit inmid-April, likely the week beginning April 13.

Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press

Congress has passed, President Trump has signed, a $2 trillion stimulus bill that includes checks to taxpayers. Here's how to see what you might get. USA TODAY

Attorney General William Barr called the restrictions in effect in many states to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus "draconian" and said Wednesday they should be revisited next month.Asked by Fox News host Laura Ingraham about the balance betweenreligious freedomsand the need to protect people, Barr said the federal government would be "keeping a careful eye" onstates' use of broad powers to regulate the lives of their citizens.

Officials, Barr said, should be "very careful to make sure...that the draconian measures that are being adopted are fully justified, and there are not alternative ways of protecting people."

Nicholas Wu

The new coronavirus began spreading in New York in February and came to the area via travelers from Europe, new research suggests.Two separate teams of scientists studying the genetics of the virus came to similar conclusions: People were spreading the virus weeks before the first confirmed case in New York.

"So far, the majority seem to be coming from Europe, and this is in part I think because there was a focus on stopping travel from China," Adriana Heguy, a geneticist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, told AFP.Harm van Bakel, a geneticist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai who led the other research team, told the New York Times: "The majority is clearly European."

The first case of the new coronavirus confirmed in New York came on March 1. On Jan. 31, President Donald Trump said he would restrictentry to the United States from those traveling from China. On March 11, Trump said he was restricting travel from Europe.

Ryan W. Miller

There probably wont be much let-up in the nations grim tally of job losses, at least in the short term, as the coronavirus pandemics toll on the economy mounts.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate the Labor Department will report Thursday that 5.5 million Americans filed initial applications for unemployment insurance last week, below the record 6.6 million who sought benefits the previous week. Jobless claims provide the best measure of layoffs across the country.

The figures are so outsizedthat forecasting them has become something of a crapshoot. Michelle Meyer, chief U.S. economist of Bank of America Merrill Lynch, predicts the latest initial claims total Thursday will be 6.5 million, and JPMorgan Chaseestimates anall-time-high of 7 million.

Paul Davidson

Another trial is underway to test the safety of a possible vaccine for the new coronavirus, and those who fear needles may be in luck: It uses a skin-deep shot that would feel like a small pinchinstead of a deep jab.The trial aims to give 40 healthy volunteers in Philadelphia and Kansas City, Missouri, two doses of the potential vaccine, INO-4800, four weeks apart.

Similar to another clinical trial that began testing for safety in Seattle last month, the potential vaccine does not rely on using the virus itself. Inovio Pharmaceuticals' trial, instead, injects a piece of synthetic DNA with a section of the virus' genetic code. The Seattle trial relies on messenger RNA. After the shot,volunteers are given a brief electrical pulse that allows the synthetic DNA to more easily enter the body.

Dozens of other potential vaccines are being developed around the world, but it could be more than a year to 18 months before a vaccine is widely available, public health officials have said.

- Ryan W. Miller

The European Union could collapse if it fails to come together over financial challenges presented by the coronavirus, Italy's prime minister said. Giuseppe Conteand some other EU leaders are pressingmore frugal members of the bloc to issue so-called "corona bonds" - sharing debt that all EU nations would help to pay off. The Netherlands is among nations that haveopposed the plan.

"If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real," Conte told the BBC.

Conte also saidItaly may start to gradually ease the world's most restrictive national lockdown. The number of new COVID-19cases, hospitalizations and deaths have started to decline across the country in recent days. Italy has reported more than 17,000 deaths, the most of any nation, and almost 140,000 confirmed cases.

The coronavirus pandemic is forcing people to stay home, but three astronauts are set toexperience a different type of isolation and quarantine in space. NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and his fellow crewmates, Russia's Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner,blasted offaboard the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraftat 4:05 a.m. ET from Kazakhstan for a six-hour journey to the International Space Station.

Russian space officials have taken extra precautions to protect the crew during training and pre-flight preparations as the coronavirus pandemic has swept the world. Speaking to journalists via video link Wednesday, Cassidy said the crew has been in a very strict quarantine for the past month and so in good health.We all feel fantastic, he said.

Associated Press

U.S. stocks were poised to give up modest ground when markets open Thursday, one dayafter the Dow Jones industrial Average raced 779.71 points higher to close at23,433.57. The Standard & Poors 500 rose 3.4% Wednesday to end at 2,749.98, driven by gains in beaten down energy, real estate and utility shares.The broad index has jumped nearly 23% since it hit a low two and a half weeks ago.

Shares were mixed in Asia on Thursday after a 3.4% gain on Wall Street as investors chose a positive focus for data about the coronavirus outbreaks trajectory.

The prospect for progress in talks among oil producers was a big driver of Wednesday's rally, along with the signs of virus infections leveling off in several global hotspots and increased clarity in the U.S. presidential race, said Adam Taback, chief investment officer for Wells Fargo Private Bank.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a third night in intensive care beingtreated for coronavirusand is instable condition and "improving," his office said.Johnson had a "good night" in the hospital, a Downing Street statement said.However, Britain's leader, 55, is still on oxygen and has handed over day-to-day operations of his government Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

Johnson's wife, Carrie Symonds, is pregnant and also suffered symptoms consistent with the coronavirus. Earlier this week, Symonds tweeted that she was feeling stronger and "on the mend."

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In a first, small step toward reopening the country, the Trump administration issued new guidelines to make it easier for essential workers who have been exposed to COVID-19 to get back to work if they do not have symptoms of the coronavirus.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced Wednesday at the White House that essential employees, such as health care and food supply workers, who have been within 6 feet of a confirmed or suspected case of the virus can return to work under certain circumstances if they are not experiencing symptoms.

Associated Press

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has new guidance for essential workers as it takes a small step toward reopening the country. (April 8) AP Domestic

According to new documents released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee, 90% of the federal personal protective equipment stockpile had been depleted as the Health and Human Services Department made its "final shipments" of N95 respirators, surgical and face masks, face shields, gowns, and gloves.

The remaining 10%, HHS said, would be reserved for federal workers and would not be sent to the states.

The documents, which report the distribution of personal protective equipment to state and local governments, show that only11.7 million N95 respirator masks have been distributed across the nation, and only 7,920 ventilators have been distributed both small fractions of the estimated amount of protective equipment needed by frontline medical workers.

Nicholas Wu

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While governors, mayors and hospital officials conduct much-publicized life-and-death struggles to acquire ventilators, for most COVID-19 patients the oxygen-providing apparatuswill merely serve as a bridge from life to death.

Dennis Carroll, who led the U.S. Agency for International Development's infectious disease unit for more than a decade, told USA TODAY perhaps one-third of COVID-19 patients on ventilators survive.

But for many, ventilators represent their last chance."If you were one of the one-third, I suspect youd be very appreciative that that capability was available," Carroll said.

Some patients may be on a ventilator for only a few hours or days, but experts say COVID-19 patients often remain on the ventilators for 10 days or more.

John Bacon

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Contributing: Paul Davidson, USA TODAY; The Associated Press

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Coronavirus live updates: Stimulus checks on the way; New York's outbreak may have come from Europe; US death toll nears 15,000 - USA TODAY

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