The Week in Business: Throwing Billions at the Coronavirus

with interest Greetings, fellow stir-crazed humans. While you work your way through your frozen food supply, we’re here to help you parse what’s next in business, tech and the economy, which continues to be devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. Keep calm and wash your hands. President Trump signed a $100 billion relief package on Wednesday that, at long last, delivers free coronavirus testing.

(Beware: Tests are covered, but related medical bills may not be. ) The legislation also provides paid leave for up to two weeks, topping out at $511 a day, for Americans who have tested positive, are in the (still lengthy, obstacle-ridden) process of being tested or have been ordered to stay home because of exposure or symptoms. As for those who can’t work because they’re caring for the millions of children whose schools or day care facilities are closed? Some are now eligible for two-thirds of their usual pay — up to $200 per day — for a maximum of 12 weeks.

Americans aren’t just losing wages because they’re sick or caring for loved ones. They’re also losing their jobs because the economy is crumbling. The most recent report on initial unemployment claims showed a 30 percent spike in the week ending on March 14 — greater than any weekly jump that occurred during (or since) the 2008 financial crisis. And it’s about to look much worse: That data is from before many cities and states took more restrictive measures to “flatten the curve” and forced closings of restaurants, bars, hotels, shops, theaters and countless other businesses.

Automakers idled their plants this past week, too, leaving many workers to rely on unemployment insurance. But many out-of-work Americans don’t even have that. Remember when some lawmakers claimed the coronavirus wasn’t going to be such a big deal? Senator Richard M.

Burr, a Republican from North Carolina who is the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, was one of them — at least publicly. Now it’s emerged that just days after Mr. Burr wrote an opinion piece saying that the United States was “better prepared than ever before” to confront the virus, he sold over a million dollars’ worth of stock, avoiding the market collapse to come.