nearly $2 trillion covid relief plan into law, meaning millions of dollars will flow into bank accounts and the hands of americans. another 12,000 americans filed for first-time unemployment claims, lost their jobs just last week. tonight s prime time speech is a new time for the president. look behind with sorrow, look ahead with hope. we re one year into the start of the new world. sports stopped, offices and schools began closing. the world health organization one year ago today called covid-19 a pandemic. one year. nearly 30 million cases here in the states, 118 million plus globally, soon to be 530,000 american deaths. the president will outline his two-track path to post-pandemic life tonight. a spring surge in the covid vaccine rollout and a surge in economic help to families, small businesses and to schools. but the president s hope does come with a messaging challenge. telling folks if there are ball games or a family picnic coming up, mask up and be extra careful ju
that we re seeing now. he did not single out florida, something a political actor never wants to do. we know a lot of them are florida but also arkansas and louisiana, states in the south where the political aspect of the vaccination challenge is at its most severe. that is what the white house continues to be focused on, is doing whatever it can to break through as a matter of speaking to the population. there s some hope among white house officials that as we get closer to fall that the population that has been most reluctant to get that vaccination, the population that deprived the president of hitting the 70% goal set for fourth of july, 18 to 26-year-olds will see an up tick getting closer to return to school, to return to a lot of people going back to workplace as private entities, including colleges and universities will potentially require that of
vaccination challenge, to see which city can grow its vaccination rate the fastest, the most, by july 4th. we need you to join these efforts. this is the kind of on the ground work that s going to get the job done. third, we ll be increasing our work with employers. a lot of working people are holding back because they re concerned about losing pay if they take time off to get a shot. or if they don t feel well the next day. i said before, for small and medium-sized employers, if you give people paid time off to get a shot, you ll get a tax credit to cover that cost. already millions of workers across the country are eligible for paid time off and incentives from their employers. i m asking all employers, do the