SAN FRANCISCO - As many parts of the world's biggest economy begin to reopen after weeks of stay-at-home orders that slowed the spread of the coronavirus but gutted jobs, Americans should not expect a quick return to growth, US Federal Reserve officials said on Friday .
The virus has continued to spread across the nation, with nearly 1.3 million people infected so far and more than 77,000 dead. The US economy shed a record 20.5 million jobs in April due to the lockdowns imposed by states and local governments to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, a Labor Department report showed on Friday.
That's not the dominant view at the Fed, which has slashed interest rates to zero, bought trillions of dollars of bonds and extended credit to local governments and businesses in an effort to prevent financial markets from imploding and keep the economy from even worse devastation.