The COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have continued to rapidly climb with new unemployment claims and pandemic shutdowns nationwide. It’s getting worse before it even gets better. People are beginning to panic and be scared of the threat of a possible nationwide lockdown due to the increase of high virus cases as the colder temperatures begin to drop. There’s even a proposal to pay Americans to stay home but it hasn’t come to that point yet and a nationwide lockdown would cost billions of dollars and would be an impractical inconvenience for Americans.
The Washington Post reports that last week that the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims rose last week to 742,000 an increase of 31,000 from the previous week. Major cities such as New York are already shuddering and implementing restrictions and closures with bars, restaurants, and schools will reactivate remote learning. It’s starting to take its toll heavily on the economy. These are scary times that we live in. It’s a never-ending nightmare.
Since October 10, applications for new jobless claims remained flat but now are on the uptick. An additional 320,000 claims were processed for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for gig and self-employed workers. Approximately 20.3 million people are claiming some form of unemployment assistance and it’s going to continue to get worse before we see any major form of relief from the federal government. Congress is still at an impasse and in a lame-duck session and will be leaving Washington, D.C. for the holiday. The U.S. Government is all talk and no action and fails to get any relief for the American citizens. Unfortunately, many U.S. citizens are facing eviction from their homes and others are homeless with no money to purchase food to put on the table. We need a stimulus bill passed immediately before the end of 2020!
Trump has tweeted to get a huge stimulus package passed but fails to actually do anything about it since losing the election.
Biden has been pushing for stimulus and he’s not even the President yet. He blames Trump and the GOP for stalling and challenging the election. Trump has given up on stimulus for Americans and only cares about himself! Time will tell if Biden will get a stimulus package passed before he takes office and convinces others to get on board.
The White House warns that people should not travel for the Thanksgiving holiday break due to a spike in high COVID cases and should celebrate some way at home. With no relief in sight, are we entering the ‘end-times?’
According to News 12, clusters in suburban areas like Orange, Westchester, and Rockland Counties in New York have been certified in orange or yellow zones for high COVID cases. Fortunately, there have been no reports of red zones in the area.
We will keep monitoring the situation as more information becomes available.