A good thursday morning to you. Craig melvin here. Just this morning new weekly unemployment numbers are out and theyre terrible. More than 6. 6 million americans filed for Unemployment Benefits just last week. So to give you perspective here, thats more than the entire population of missouri. It also doubles the previous weeks 3. 3 million jobless claims, and that was considered a record at the time. It shows just how quickly things are moving. This morning were also watching this, the surge in coronavirus cases here in the United States. Right now more than 217,000 known cases. Thats almost 2,800 more cases than the same time yesterday. So far, the virus has killed more than 4,800 of our fellow americans. Health care workers continue to give us a sobering reality check as our hospitals are slammed with new patients. We are scared of becoming exposed to covid19 and transmitting to other patients and to our families. We see other nurses and doctors dying and people not taking it seriously. It feels like a slap in the face. It feels this way because we feel our sacrifices are being made in vane. In the next 30 minutes we expect to hear from new York Governor Andrew Cuomo about how this states hospitals are shouldering the burden. First lets start with the recordbreaking unemployment numbers out just this morning. Lets go right to nbcs jo ling kent and Senior Business correspondent stephanie ruhle. Jo, ill start with you. Break down the numbers and what does it say about the impact this virus is having on americans who simply cant go to work right now . Craig, its devastating in a word. Over the last two weeks, if you total the numbers, its about 10 for unemployment claims across the country. The states the hardest hit, pennsylvania, massachusetts, texas, california, and every single state has been negatively affected by this. Weve been talking to people inside the unemployment offices who are helping process these claims trying to get you your unemployment check. Theyve been simply overwhelmed. Weve talked to agencies that have doubled their staff. Their staff is working from home and theyre trying to process all of this. Just to give you the perspective on how bad this is in terms of the sheer numbers, at the peak of the financial crisis, the jobless claim we saw, the largest was 650,000. Today we got 6. 5 million. This is a story of hurt for so Many Americans out there, reflective of the massive layoffs across the board when it comes to theest are raunt industry, retail and everywhere in between. But this pain really hurts. What we do know talking so far, talking with economists in unemployment offices is this is just the beginning. This is the tip of the iceberg right now because theres such a backlog of claims. For example, if you look at the california number specifically, you can see its 100thingthousand for this prior week. We know Governor Newsom told us over a week ago that climbs here in california are already over a million. So thats how far backlogged it may be. It takes time to verify your wages, to get that unemployment check, so its just the beginning. Not to mention, this number comes from the week that ended march 28th. Theres been so many more announcements since then including the massive furloughing and layoffs. At macys, one of our retail leaders, so its a very hard story. Weve been hearing from so many people across the country sending us their selfie videos, theyre worried about not just rent and mortgages but where theyre going to eat and how theyre going to afford their groceries for their families. Craig. Steph, what do we know about the workers that are hurting most right now . What do we know about the workers being hit hardest by all of this . Craig, im actually going to take the other side of this and show you a bit of a Silver Lining. What this unemployment number shows us is that people and businesses are listening. The number one priority right now is to take the Health Advice from the Surgeon General who said we need to stay home, shut off our economy. When you see all these people out there filing for unemployment, thats what theyre doing. Weve been telling people for the last two weeks, its time to go home. Here is an example. Its april 1st. Wedding season is a month from now. If youre a wedding photographer, videographer, makeup artist, cater waiter or a band leader, youve all just applied for unemployment in the last two weeks because you dont have a job. But it doesnt mean that wedding isnt going to happen. Its postponed. That number is enormous, but that number is reflective before the cares act. Remember that was signed on friday. A that massively expands unemployment. So were going to see more people apply for unemployment. But the cares act also includes 350 billion of loans that turn into grants, meaning you dont have to pay them back for Small Businesses. A lot of those Small Businesses in the coming weeks are going to rehire people. Im not saying the number isnt going to go up, but its fastly different from the financial crisis where we saw businesses decimated and not coming back. There is pentup demand for people who want to go back to work, who want to do those things again. So its a devastating number, significantly bigger than we thought. Jo is 100 right. There are countless videos of people who say i have bills to pay and i cant even get through to the website. On the other side, many of those people are eligible for that unemployment. An hour ago i spoke to the governor of connecticut who said i realize theres a mismatch. We cant answer the phone, we cant help on a website yet. Thats why theres been mortgage and rent forgiveness, banks, Credit Card Companies say were going to give you more time. The number is devastating. Youve got to look under it. Its a complicated number. Steph, i want to pull up the markets here for a second for folks who dont follow them as closely as you do. The green arrows are pointing up. If you look at the three major indices right now. Explain the correlation between the two, if you can. How can it be there are so many people who filed for unemployment, but the markets are stronger today than they were a week ago . Because, craig, the markets are making my point for me. The biggest investors and ceos out there have said, if we want to slow the spread of the coronavirus, we need to shut down tore ffor a period of time. We dont want to go back to work too quickly because well get sick again and shut down again. Theres a positive Market Reaction because the market is absorbing, its understanding this 2 trillion stimulus package that hasnt made its way through the system yet, and all those unemployment claims show that people are actually going home, which we need them to do. So remember, weve been been telling people for the last two weeks, dont wait around, go on unemployment, the government is there to help you during this period of time. We dont want people putting themselves at risk, going to work because they need to feed their families. Theyre going on unemployment because the government is stepping in. A Silver Lining perhaps. Stephanie ruhle, thank you. Jo ling kent, thanks to you as well. As we follow the spike in coronavirus cases, new york continues to see the absolute worst of it. As of this morning, more than 84,000 people have tested positive, nearly 2,000 people have died in the state of new york. The fast majority of those cases and deaths are in new york city. Hospitals overwhelmed. First responders are getting sick in extraordinary numbers. Lets go right to our reporters on the ground in new york city, nbcs Anne Thompson is at Lenox Hill Hospital in manhattan. Tom winter at an fdny ems station in manhattan. Ann, ill start with you outside lenox hill. What do we know about the number of people being treated there . What do we know about how theyre dealing with whats being described as an overwhelming number of patients . Reporter lenox hill, craig, like many other hospitals in the city has seen the number of covid19 patients continue to grow. This morning a hospital spokesperson tells us that they have 250 coronavirus patients here. Thats an increase of 50 from yesterday, and that 21 of those patients are in the intensive care unit. Earlier this morning, i talked to an icu nurse who say most of the patients in icu at lenox hill are covid19 patients and most of those patients are on ventilators. But here is really what i think is the most frightening image of all today. Lenox hill is just off of park avenue. Behind me is the site that some park avenue residents are waking up to this morning. Let me describe it to you. There is at the end a tented walkway that comes out of the back of Lenox Hill Hospital, and it goes to this refrigeration truck. That truck is a temporary morgue. Just a few minutes ago we were listening to the generator hum here just off of park avenue as it waits for the bodies of covid19 patients to come and what they think is just going to be a very difficult couple of weeks ahead for the city of new york. The mayor of the city of new york, bill de blasio, has said april 5th is the demarcation point, and theyre obviously getting ready here at lenox hill. Earlier this morning there was a truck that came up it was filled with temporary walls. So they moved them inside the hospital so they can set up extra rooms in case they need them. As the man who was unloading said to me, look, wed rather be prepared than not. Lets get ready now before the real onslaught comes. It is very, very difficult to look at these refrigerated trucks. This one is here obviously outside lenox hill. But you will see them outside hospitals throughout the city of new york. Officials are trying to prepare new yorkers for what is today a bad situation that is only going to get worse. Craig. Anne thompson outside lenox hill with a stark visual reminder of what we are potentially up against in new york city. Ann, thank you. Tom, let me turn to you. Mayor deblasio, we understand he met with ems workers a few hours ago. The citys Fire Department says the 911 medical call volume continues to hit new records. You and i talked about this yesterday. It would seem as if a dire situation has gotten worse for the system. Reporter i would say so, craig. While you were speaking about the economic impact, i was getting new numbers as far as the amount of people within the fdny, the emts, firefighters and civilians that tested positive for covid19, that number is up to 338, increase of 50 since yesterday. On top of that, approximately 3,000 members of the fdny including emts, firefighters and civilians are reported out sick today. About a quarter of those, so about 700 are emts. Thats a significant number. Some of those folks are out on disability or other injuries. This is a physical, a demanding job, not tied to having any sort of sickness, but its still a significant number. Theres been some changes that are going to be forced upon the fdny and all the other emt and medical Services Including the lenox hill emts where anne is at. Essentially what theyre going to be told from here on out, if somebody is in cardiac arrest, had a heart attack an an apartment building, somebody in a horrible accident, no longer do they want this group that oversees called remsco, oversees all the ems services in new york city, they dont want those patients going to the hospitals anymore. The feeling is according to senior new york city officials is the hospitals cant take those bodies. They dont want additional cpr or anything to be done inside those ambulances. In reality the folks that are dead are going to have to stay there, another macabre sign of whats going on in new york city. Okay. Tom winter, thank you. Lets go from new york to texas now. This morning texans are waking up for the first time under a statewide stayathome order. After initially resisting like a number of other governors, Texas Governor greg abbott finally issued the order for the nations secondmost populous state. Like other governors, allowing exceptions for essential workers. His order also allows exceptions for religious services. As of this morning, more than 4,000 people in texas tested positive for coronavirus. More than 60 people have died. Msnbcs Garrett Haake knows texas very well. He joins us now from dallas. How are folks there in dallas reacting to this new order, garrett . How broad are these exceptions to the governors mandate . Reporter craig, dallas is the epicenter within texas. Dallas county has more cases than any other county in texas. So folks here have arguably been taking this more seriously than in other parts of the state. The governors reticence to put this in place, shows how broad the experience of texans have been. Things are different in king county in west texas than they are in dallas where the county judge put more restrictive measures in place late last week to clamp down here. There are some exceptions to this stayathome order which the governor resisted calling it a stayathome order. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, thats what we eerl dealing with. The exceptions include construction. Im looking at an apartment complex with perhaps 30 people on a roof building an apartment complex in downtown dallas. It includes religious services. Ive heard some concern that not all religious services have moved to going online and county and city local governments may not be able to go in and check on folks to make sure theyre social distancing. You see the state of texas trying to get ahead of this. More than 700 cases in dallas county, again, the forefront of whats coming here in texas, craig. Garrett haake coming to us from downtown dallas. Garrett, thank you. Meanwhile, back here new York Governor Andrew Cuomo about to update the situation in new york. After this mornings dretdful weekly jobs claims, more than 350,000 in new york state alone filing for unemployment last week. Were going to bring you the latest from Governor Cuomo when it happens roughly 15 minutes from now. First, though, a frightening warning from homeland security. The nations emergency stockpile of medical gear running dangerously low. Now those Health Care Workers are getting sick at alarming rates. How hospitals are rising to the challenge. Meanwhile, earlier today i talked to d. C. Mayor Muriel Bowser about her phone call with President Trump to make sure that washington, d. C. Gets its share of federal aid. The president was committed to working to make sure that washington, d. C. Is counted as a state for funding purposes as we are with every other thing else. So we continue to call on his administration to fix it. But also our leaders in the congress. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to make it through. Grubhub. Together we can help save the restaurants we love. Did you know Liberty Mutual customizes your Car Insurance tada so you only pay for what you need . I should get a quote. Do it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Shbecause xfinity mobilehen ygives you more flexible data. You can choose to share data between lines, mix with unlimited, or switch it up at any time. All on the most reliable wireless network. Which means you can save money without compromising on coverage. Get more flexible data, the most reliable network, and more savings. Plus, get 300 off when you buy a new Samsung Galaxy s20 ultra. Thats simple. Easy. Awesome. Go to xfinitymobile. Com today. We have breaking news from the hill on this thursday morning. House Speaker Nancy PelosiJust Announced she will be, in fact, creating a House Select Committee on the coronavirus crisis. It will be a bipartisan committee, chaired by South Carolina congressman james clyburn. Pelosi is talking to reporters right now. We will keep you posted with more information as we get it. But as expected, the speaker of the house announcing a select committee that will presumably be looking into other things, this countrys response to the pandemic. Meanwhile a new jersey doctor is now believed to be the first emergency physician in the United States to die after contracting the virus. That was confirmed wednesday in a statement from the American College of emergency physicians. 60yearold frank gabren died just days after developing symptoms consistent with the virus. He was a twotime cancer survivor. His death underscores the dangers facing so many medical workers as hospitals continue to see record numbers of patients. I want to bring in brian granulotte. We should first of all note that the doctor i just mentioned did not work in one of your hospitals, but i do want to start by asking, how are your hospitals managing, especially your doctors . Thank you, craig, for having us talk about this important issue. Our medical professionals are some of the most amazing human beings in the world, and ive had the privilege of working with them for so long. This is a very difficult issue for all to work with. Our thoughts go out to the family of the physician that passed. But ive got to tell you, as i talk to our providers, they have not experienced anything like this. Newjersey. Com is reporting the state Health Commissioner said on wednesday that a surge in cases isnt really expected in new jersey until the second week of april. How are your hospitals bracing for that surge . So we are in that process right now. If you follow the train line out of new york city, you get into new jersey, you get into the market and we are seeing that doubling of cases and everything you would expect from that. Weve taken care of over 3,000 patients that have tested positive. Today alone in our command center it was reported we have 600 people in place. But we also recognize that about 20 of those folks are in our icus and on ventilators. So making