Nissan previously announced its manufacturing facilities in the U.S. will remain closed through mid-May as a measure to help protect employees and reduce the spread of COVID-19, a.k.a., coronavirus, a.k.a., SARS-CoV-2, a.k.a., the reason why we are all inside these days.

But the Franklin-based automaker has decided to continue the closure until further notice.

"Nissan is extending production downtime for most of its manufacturing facilities in the U.S. The company will continue to evaluate the status of the COVID-19 pandemic, current market demand and supplier readiness before setting a restart date," the announcement said.

Some business-essential work that must be done on site will continue with enhanced safety measures. Nissan will continue to monitor the situation closely and make adjustments as needed.

The earlier announcement came on the heels of Nissan's monthly sales report.

Thanks to the pandemic, Nissan Group's U.S. first-quarter (January-March) 2020 sales saw a decrease of 29.6 percent (from 365,851 to 257,606 units) versus the prior year.

One highlight, it looks like Nissan finally sold its last nine Jukes in the fourth quarter of 2019. The oddly shaped SUV crossover was discontinued in 2017. At least there aren't any Cubes left.

A few models actually saw increased sales before the bottom fell out.

• Sales of the Nissan Murano were up 34 percent in the first quarter to 15,683 units.
• Kicks sales rose 12 percent with 13,969 units sold.
• Pathfinder SUV sales rose 4 percent to 18,092 units sold.
• NV200 commercial van sales rose 2 percent with 4,740 units sold.

The rest were down. Overall Nissan saw a 30 percent drop in sales while Infiniti only saw a 25.5 percent decrease.