WATCH: President Trump, White House coronavirus (COVID-19) task force hold daily briefing

President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence listens. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (Alex Brandon, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and the White House coronavirus (COVID-19) task force held the daily briefing Thursday afternoon.

The task force holds a press conference each day to provide an update on the country’s response to COVID-19.

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Watch the briefing below (or click here):

Read a COVID-19 update from the Associated Press below:

More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week — doubling a record high set just one week earlier — in a sign that layoffs are accelerating in the midst of the new coronavirus.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is resisting calls to issue a national stay-at-home order to stem the spread of the coronavirus despite his administration’s grim projections of tens of thousands dying.

One by one, states are increasingly pushing shutdowns: Florida, Nevada and Pennsylvania have all added or expanded stay-at-home orders.

WHAT’S HAPPENING TODAY:

— The economic damage from the coronavirus crisis is piling up, with an unprecedented 6.6 million Americans filing for unemployment benefits in a single week. About half of all working Americans report some kind of income loss affecting themselves or a member of their household, with low-income residents and those without college degrees especially likely to have lost a job, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

— New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo warned Thursday that the state’s supply of breathing machines could be exhausted in six days if the number of people made critically ill by the coronavirus outbreak continues at its current rate. Across the world, the competition for masks and other protective gear intensified amid growing evidence that people who are infected but have no symptoms can spread the virus.

— The Democratic National Committee is delaying its presidential nominating convention until the week of Aug. 17 after prospective nominee Joe Biden said he didn’t think it would be possible to hold a normal convention in mid-July because of the pandemic.

— As the coronavirus spreads across Europe, ravaging economies and killing thousands, governments and the European Union are focusing much of their economic rescue efforts on containing a boom in joblessness, particularly by helping companies not fire workers.

— The spread of the coronavirus “is an existential threat” to the continent of Africa, where ventilators and critical supplies are sorely lacking, the head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Some African countries will have more than 10,000 cases by the end of April, health officials projected.

— Nursing homes across the U.S. have been in lockdown for weeks under federal orders to protect their frail, elderly residents from the coronavirus, but a wave of deadly outbreaks nearly every day since suggests that the measures either came too late or were not rigorous enough. Federal authorities have proposed a $611,000 fine for a Seattle-area nursing home connected to at least 40 coronavirus deaths.

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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death. The vast majority of people recover.

One of the best ways to prevent spread of the virus is washing your hands with soap and water. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends first washing with warm or cold water and then lathering soap for 20 seconds to get it on the backs of hands, between fingers and under fingernails before rinsing off.

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ONE NUMBER:

— ONE MILLION: The New England Patriots’ team plane is expected to return to Boston from China on Thursday carrying more than one million masks critical to health care providers fighting to control the spread of the coronavirus.

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IN OTHER NEWS:

— BOUNCY FAUCI: The United States’ top infectious disease specialist is getting his own bobblehead. The creation from the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee features Dr. Anthony Fauci wearing a suit as he makes a motion showing how the nation needs to “flatten the curve” in the coronavirus pandemic.

— MUSIC GOES ON: Even with its members scattered far and wide by the coronavirus, an orchestra in France has managed to make sweet music in lockdown. Musicians with the National Orchestra of France filmed themselves playing “Bolero” alone at home.

— TEDDY BEAR HUNT: Teddy bears are popping up in the unlikeliest of places. New Zealanders are embracing an international movement in which people are placing the stuffed animals in their windows during coronavirus lockdowns to brighten the mood and give children a game to play by spotting the bears in their neighborhoods.