2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

RETAIL AND FOOD SERVICES SALES

Source: Dept. ofCommerce

THE NEW YORK TIMES

Percentage change from previous month

%+

–

–

–

–

2

0

2

4

6

8

MARCH ’20

– 8.7%

C M Y K Nxxx,2020-04-16,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

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JAMES ESTRIN/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said New Yorkers must wear face coverings in stores and in public. Page A14.Everybody Cover Up

DETROIT — Paris Bankssprayed the seat with Lysol beforesliding into the last row on theright. Rochell Brown put out hercigarette, tucked herself behindthe steering wheel and slappedthe doors shut.

It was 8:37 a.m., and the No. 17bus began chugging west acrossDetroit.

On stepped the fast-foodworker who makes chickenshawarma that’s delivered todoorsteps, the janitor who cleansgrocery stores, the warehouseworker pulling together Amazonorders.

By 9:15, every available row onthe bus was occupied. Strangerssat shoulder to shoulder. The citymight be spread across 139 squaremiles, but one morning last weekthere was no way to social dis-tance aboard this 40-foot-longNew Flyer bus. Passengers wereanxious and annoyed. Resigned,too.

“I don’t like it, but it’s somethingyou have to do,” Valerie Brown, 21,

the fast-food worker, said througha blue mask. She was on her wayto work at a local Middle Easternfast-food chain.

This hardscrabble city, wherenearly 80 percent of residents areblack, has become a national hotspot with more than 7,000 infec-tions and more than 400 deaths.

One reason for the rapid spread,experts say, is that the city has alarge working-class populationthat does not have the luxury ofliving in isolation. Their jobs can-not be performed from a laptop ina living room. They do not havevehicles to safely get them to thegrocery store.

No Choice but Shoulder to Shoulder on the BusBy JOHN ELIGON Detroit’s Working Class

Commutes in Dread

Paris Banks boarding the No. 17 bus in Detroit. She tries to reduce her risk by disinfecting her seat.EMILY ROSE BENNETT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A12

As President Trump pushes toreopen the economy, most of thecountry is not conducting nearlyenough testing to track the pathand penetration of the coro-navirus in a way that would allowAmericans to safely return towork, public health officials andpolitical leaders say.

Although capacity has im-proved in recent weeks, supplyshortages remain crippling, andmany regions are still restrictingtests to people who meet specificcriteria. Antibody tests, which re-veal whether someone has everbeen infected with the coro-navirus, are just starting to berolled out, and most have not beenvetted by the Food and Drug Ad-ministration.

Concerns intensified onWednesday as Senate Democratsreleased a $30 billion plan forbuilding up what they called “fast,free testing in every community,”saying they would push to includeit in the next pandemic relief pack-age. Business leaders, who par-ticipated in the first conferencecall of Mr. Trump’s advisory coun-cil on restarting the economy,warned that it would not rebounduntil people felt safe to re-emerge,which would require more screen-ing.

And Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ofNew York reiterated his call forfederal assistance to ramp up test-ing, both for the virus and for anti-bodies.

“The more testing, the moreopen the economy. But there’s not

Scant TestingIs Still BarrierFor ReopeningThis article is by Abby Good-

nough, Katie Thomas and SheilaKaplan.

Continued on Page A13

SALES AT U.S. STORES HIT ‘CATASTROPHIC’ DEPTHS

Retail sales plunged in March,offering a grim snapshot of the co-ronavirus outbreak’s effect onconsumer spending, as busi-nesses shuttered from coast tocoast and wary shoppers re-stricted their spending.

Total sales, which include retailpurchases in stores and online aswell as money spent at bars andrestaurants, fell 8.7 percent fromthe previous month, the Com-merce Department said Wednes-day. The decline was by far thelargest in the nearly three dec-ades the government has trackedthe data.

Even that bleak figure doesn’tcapture the full impact of the sud-den economic freeze on the retailindustry. Most states didn’t shutdown nonessential businesses un-til late March or early April, mean-ing data for the current monthcould be worse still.

“It was a pretty catastrophicdrop-off in that back half of themonth,” said Sucharita Kodali, aretail analyst at Forrester Re-search. She said April “may beone of the worst months ever.”

The resulting job losses contin-ue to mount. Best Buy, which has125,000 employees over all, saidWednesday that it would furlough51,000 hourly store workers be-ginning Sunday, including nearlyall of its part-time staff.

And in the months ahead, thequestion is how quickly spendingwill bounce back once the econ-omy reopens, and how many busi-nesses will survive until then.

People who lose jobs won’tquickly resume spending once

businesses reopen. And thosewilling to spend may be reluctantto congregate in malls, restau-rants and other businesses thatrely on face-to-face contact.

Michelle Cordeiro Grant, chiefexecutive and founder of Lively, alingerie brand acquired by Wacoallast year, said it wasn’t clear howcustomers would want to shopand “what the new culture ofshopping in physical retail willbe.”

“Do they want to have a differ-ent type of fitting-room experi-ence?” she mused. “Do they wantour associates to wear masks andto be offered a mask? What is thetry-on situation?”

When demand does rebound, itmight come too late for some re-tailers, many of which were strug-gling even before the pandemicbecause of changes in mall trafficand a long-term shift to onlinesales.

The disruptions from the pan-demic may ultimately hand morepower to retailers able to continueoperating stores during the crisis.

“It’s only going to cause ashakeout of a lot of retailers, and Ithink long term it just means thatsome of these big guys get lesscompetition,” Ms. Kodali said.“The less competition they have,

Retailers FearAny Rebound

Is Too Far Off

By SAPNA MAHESHWARIand BEN CASSELMAN

Continued on Page A10

For years, Claire McCarvilledreamed of going to college inNew York or Los Angeles, andwas thrilled last month to get ac-cepted to selective schools in bothplaces. But this month, she sent a$300 deposit to Arizona State Uni-versity, a 15-minute drive from herhome in Phoenix. “It made moresense,” she said, “in light of the vi-rus.”

Across the country, studentslike Ms. McCarville are rethinkingtheir choices in a world altered bythe pandemic. And universities,concerned about the potential forshrinking enrollment and lost rev-enue, are making a wave of deci-sions in response that could pro-foundly alter the landscape ofhigher education for years tocome.

Lucrative spring sports sea-sons have been canceled, roomand board payments have beenrefunded, and students at someschools are demanding hefty tu-ition discounts for what they seeas a lost spring term. Other reve-nue sources like study abroad pro-grams and campus bookstoreshave dried up, and federal re-search funding is threatened.

Already, colleges have seentheir endowments weakened andworry that fund-raising effortswill founder even as many fam-ilies need more financial aid. Theyalso expect to lose internationalstudents, especially from Asia, be-

cause of travel restrictions andconcerns about studying abroad.Foreign students, usually payingfull tuition, represent a significantrevenue source everywhere, fromthe Ivy League to community col-leges.

Some institutions are project-ing $100 million losses for thespring, and many are now bracingfor an even bigger financial hit inthe fall, when some are planningfor the possibility of having to con-tinue remote classes.

Administrators anticipate thatstudents grappling with the finan-cial and psychological impacts ofthe virus could choose to staycloser to home, go to less expen-sive schools, take a year off or notgo to college at all. A higher educa-tion trade group has predicted a 15percent drop in enrollment nation-wide, amounting to a $23 billionrevenue loss.

“The combination of fear forhealth and safety and the eco-nomic impact at the same time isone that I haven’t experienced,and I don’t think most universityleaders have,” said Kent D.Syverud, the chancellor of Syra-

Colleges Running Low on MoneyWorry Students Will Vanish, Too

By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS Applicants ReconsiderTheir Choices in a

Changed World

Continued on Page A15

The critic Michael Kimmelman joins the historian Daniel Okrent on a virtualtour of the complex. PAGE C1

The Glory of Rockefeller CenterThe anniversary of the Notre-Dame firepassed with rebuilding work pausedand the city in lockdown. PAGE A18

Paris’s 2 Catastrophes

In Argentina, a push for gender-neutralterms is gaining supporters, includingPresident Alberto Fernández. PAGE A17

INTERNATIONAL A17-18

Seeking a Grammar RevolutionKenya Barris, creator of the comedy“black-ish,” stars as a successful TVwriter in Netflix’s “#blackAF.” PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Turning the Camera on HimselfPresident Trump wanted a daily two-hour show, officials said, but was reluc-tant to compete with Rush Limbaugh, afriend and conservative ally. PAGE A19

NATIONAL A19-21

The Radio Show That Wasn’t

Elizabeth Warren is the latest big-nameprogressive to help Joseph R. Biden Jr.’sappeal with liberal voters. PAGE A21

Warren Endorses Biden

Willie Davis, a Hall of Famer, helpedwin five N.F.L. titles, including the firsttwo Super Bowls. He was 85. PAGE A24

OBITUARIES A24, B11-12

Fierce Pass Rusher for Packers

Although the status of the U.S. Openremains unclear, the U.S.T.A. will try tobail out tennis’s grass roots. PAGE B9

SPORTSTHURSDAY B9-10

Seeking a Financial Tiebreaker

Once the pandemic reached rural Bris-tol, N.H., the effect on the local econ-omy was devastating. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-8

Upheaval in a Small Town

The retailer said it would temporarilysuspend operations there after a courtsaid it hadn’t adequately protectedworkers against Covid-19. PAGE B1

Amazon at Odds With France

Some trainers who spent time behindbars share tips on how to emerge fromconfinement in better shape. PAGE D1

THURSDAY STYLES D1-6

Experts at Lockdown Fitness

Reese Witherspoon’s fashion line, Dra-per James, offered free clothes to teach-ers — just not every teacher. PAGE D1

A Dress Giveaway Goes Wrong

Neal K. Katyal PAGE A23

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23

WASHINGTON — Fox Newspundits and Republican lawmak-ers have raged for weeks at theWorld Health Organization forpraising China’s handling of thecoronavirus crisis. On his podcast,President Trump’s former chiefstrategist, Stephen K. Bannon,urged his former boss to stopfunding the W.H.O., citing its tiesto the “Chinese CommunistParty.”

And inside the West Wing, thepresident found little resistanceamong the China skeptics in hisadministration for lashing out atthe W.H.O. and essentially tryingto shift the blame for his own fail-ure to aggressively confront thespread of the virus by accusingthe world’s premier global healthgroup of covering up for the coun-try where it started.

Mr. Trump’s decision on Tues-day to freeze nearly $500 millionin public money for the W.H.O. inthe middle of a pandemic was theculmination of a concerted con-servative campaign against thegroup. But the president’s an-nouncement on the W.H.O. drewfierce condemnations from manyquarters.

The U.S. Chamber of Commercesaid cutting its funding was “not inU.S. interests.” Speaker Nancy

Allies of TrumpUrged His MoveAgainst W.H.O.

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

Continued on Page A8

Late Edition

VOL. CLXIX . . . No. 58,665 © 2020 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2020

Today, variably cloudy, breezy,chilly, high 50. Tonight, partlycloudy, cold, low 38. Tomorrow, sun-shine then clouds, afternoon rain,high 50. Weather map, Page A20.

$3.00