The Emory University medical school doctor leading the Remdesivir drug trials says the drug provides a β€œglimmer of hope” for coronavirus treatment.

Aneesh Mehta said Thursday on ABC’s β€œGood Morning America” that β€œwe are looking to find a medication that helps patients get better more rapidly, get them home to their families and make more room for other patients for us to take care of.”

He adds: β€œI think now we have the first glimmer of hope of something that can do that.”

Mehta cautions that the Remdesivir data is β€œvery preliminary.” He says most antivirals tend to work better earlier in the course of disease.

Here's an update on all developments. Scroll or swipe further for in-depth coverage.

  • More than 3.8 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week as the U.S. economy slid further into a crisis that is becoming the most devastating since the 1930s. Economists are estimating that 1 in 6 workers, or nearly 30 million people, have lost their jobs over the past six weeks.
  • The reported U.S. death toll on Wednesday crept past 60,000, a figure that President Trump in recent weeks had suggested might be the total death count. He had cited the estimate as a sign of relative success after the White House previously warned the U.S. could suffer 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.
  • Police were called to a Brooklyn neighborhood Wednesday after a funeral home overwhelmed by the coronavirus resorted to storing dozens of bodies on ice in rented trucks, and a passerby complained about the smell, officials said.
  • The European economy shrank a record 3.8% in the first quarter as lockdowns turned cities into ghost towns and plunged nations into recession. The drop was the biggest since eurozone statistics began in 1995 and compares to a 4.8% contraction in the United States.
  • Americans are grappling with an essential question as they try to get the information they need to stay safe during the coronavirus crisis: Whom do you trust?
  • The virus has killed nearly 228,000 people worldwide, including 61,000 in the U.S., according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Confirmed infections globally topped 3.2 million, including 1 million in the U.S., but the true toll of the pandemic is likely much higher
  • California Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all beaches and state parks closed starting Friday after people thronged the seashore during a sweltering weekend despite his social distancing order that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus, according to a memo sent to police chiefs around the state.
  • Brazil’s virtually uncontrolled surge of COVID-19 cases is spawning fear that construction workers, truck drivers and tourists from Latin America’s biggest nation will spread the disease to neighboring countries that are doing a better job of controlling the coronavirus.
  • Under Japan’s coronavirus state of emergency, people have been asked to stay home. Many are not. Some still have to commute to their jobs despite risks of infection, while others continue to dine out, picnic in parks and crowd into grocery stores with scant regard for social distancing.

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For more summaries and full reports, please select from the articles below. Scroll further for a closer look at the economic impact of the virus, interactive maps tracking the pandemic, and more.

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A closer look ... unemployment

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