The U.N. Security Council held its first meeting on the pandemic, after months of disputes between China and the United States.
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A partial shutdown took effect in Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, amid fears that the virus could overwhelm the country’s health care system.
Here’s what you need to know:
- E.U. officials agreed to spend heavily to shore up economies, but only to a point.
- U.N. Security Council holds its first meeting on the pandemic, after months of inaction.
- More than 6 million Americans file for unemployment.
- East Asia’s surges show how hard it is to control the pandemic.
- In Europe, wearing masks in public is no longer ‘alien.’
Alessandro Grassani for The New York Times
E.U. officials agreed to spend heavily to shore up economies, but only to a point.
European Union finance ministers agreed Thursday night to a plan calling for more than half a trillion euros worth of new measures to buttress their economies against the onslaught of the coronavirus.
But the ministers dealt a blow to the bloc’s worst-hit members, Italy and Spain, by sidestepping their pleas to issue joint debt.
Even in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis caused by a virus that has killed more than 50,000 E.U. citizens, wealthier northern European countries were reluctant to subsidize cheap debt for the badly hit south.
And while Germany, the Netherlands and others showed greater generosity than they had in previous crises, the details of the measures announced showed they had gone to great lengths to limit and control the way the funding is used.
The programs the finance ministers agreed to recommend to their countries’ leaders for final approval included a €100 billion loan plan for unemployment benefits, €200 billion in loans for smaller businesses, and access to €240 billion in loans for euro-area countries to draw on from the eurozone bailout fund. One euro is equal to about $1.09.
But the ministers were not able to reach an agreement on issuing joint bonds, known as “corona-bonds,” despite pleas from the leaders of Italy and Spain, which are bearing the brunt of the crisis, after staunch resistance from Germany, the Netherlands and others.
In other developments:
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain was moved out of intensive care on Thursday, as the country’s coronavirus death toll approached 8,000. The next question is when, and how, to reopen the British economy.
- France’s death toll rose past 12,000 on Thursday but the total number of patients in intensive care fell slightly for the first time since the start of the epidemic.
- With the long Easter weekend approaching, Chancellor Angela Merkel cautioned Germans not to give in to the temptation to roam outside and congregate.
THE E.U. PLAN:
Half a trillion euros, but no agreement on issuing joint bonds.
