Camila Domonoske

Millions of Americans have lost work and money due to the coronavirus pandemic. Now, some businesses are reopening. Are you ready to go back to normal life? NPR wants to hear your story.

U.S. new car sales have been recovering for six straight weeks. They're still low compared with pre-coronavirus levels, but huge incentives have helped attract buyers despite an economic crisis.

This applies to people who haven't received a payment and who haven't checked that the IRS has their information. Those who miss the deadline will get a paper check, which may not arrive until June.

CEO Elon Musk tweeted that he was willing to be arrested for resuming production before getting approval from Alameda County. The county had earlier said it was working with Tesla on a safety plan.

The pandemic has devastated the job markets across the U.S. The April jobs report reveals the massive toll the crisis took on industries — from restaurants and retail to health care and automotive.

Michelle Lee, a Safeway cashier, wishes customers would be more patient about shortages. "They can't understand why they keep coming back and we don't have" items such as toilet paper, she says.

Miles driven in the U.S. plummeted remarkably in the middle of March — dropping by 30% in a single week. Now driving is slowly resuming, a trend that began before stay-at-home orders were lifted.

U.S. auto plants are gradually starting to reopen. New safety measures, from social distancing to face shields, are being put into place, while some workers are anxious about the risk of an outbreak.

Tesla's CEO downplayed the virus last month, tweeting on March 19 that based on the trends at the time, there would "probably" be "close to zero new cases" in the United States "by end of April."

Grocery stores have carved out special shopping times for seniors and others. "Just to be able to spend that one-on-one time with ... them. They definitely make me laugh," Courtney Meadows says.

The oil and gas supermajor says it has reconfigured a Louisiana facility to manufacture millions of bottles of medical-grade hand sanitizer. Liquor companies started a similar switch in mid-March.

The pandemic means the world is using far less oil. But pumps are still going, creating a huge oversupply. Companies are often willing to operate pumps at a loss — for a little while.

Oil prices went into negative territory on Monday. That means traders were paying money to get people to accept oil in May. It's a sign of just how imbalanced the global oil markets are.

For the first time ever, a key oil benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, fell below zero on Monday. That means some traders, instead of paying money to buy oil, are paying to get rid of it.

The International Energy Agency says the industry is about to test the limit of how much oil it can transport and store, given the phenomenal drop in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Some restaurants are adding toilet paper, fresh vegetables and other staples to their menus. They rely on different supply chains than grocery stores, so there's still plenty of yeast to be had.

Marathon video chats led to a record-setting 9.7 million barrels per day in cuts. But analysts say that's not a big enough drop to balance oil markets, given the total collapse in demand for crude.

The ventilators will be delivered to the national stockpile by August. The contract, worth nearly $500 million, is the first ventilator order placed using the Defense Production Act.

More countries are imposing export restrictions on essential medical materials, to try to keep domestically produced goods — like masks, gloves and ventilators — available for domestic needs.

Auto assembly plants across the country continue to be closed amid the coronavirus pandemic. Tens of thousands of workers are going without pay.