Ferrari seeks travel assurance for Australian grand prix

Ferrari will seek assurances from Australian authorities that its staff will be allowed to travel and not face quarantine restrictions before heading to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix, which opens the Formula One season on 15 March.

The Italian giant suspended non-critical business travel and external access to its factory in Maranello, about 200km from the centre of the Italian outbreak in Codongo, on Wednesday.

The Victorian sports minister Martin Pakula told The Guardian on Thursday that the event would go ahead, and the Australian Grand Prix corporation said it would comply with advice from the government and health authorities.

But without Ferrari, the F1 would lose its biggest drawcard.

Ferarri team principle Mattia Binotto raised the issue after his staff faced difficulties getting to the Bahrain F2 test this weekend.

He said he would need confirmation from F1 and FIA officials that there would be “no surprises” before allowing staff to travel to Australia.

He told Motorsport.com:

What we will need is simply to have assurance before leaving.

If there are any medical screenings, we need to know about them. You need to know exactly what’s about. We need to understand what are the consequences in case of any problem?

Obviously we need to protect our employees. We have got collective and individual responsibility towards them. And it’s important, really, to make sure that before leaving, the picture, whatever is the scenario, is known and clear.

Binotto said with Ferrari providing assistance to Haas and Alfa Sauber as well as their own AlphaTauri team, more than one team could be affected.

What will be the situation that if eventually four teams cannot run and if the race will take place or not? That is not my decision.

Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has warned party officials there would be “serious consequences” of failing to prevent an outbreak of coronavirus in that country.

More from AFP:

The impoverished nation, with a weak and ill-equipped healthcare system, has closed its borders to prevent the spread of the disease into its territory.

Kim told a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea that the fight against the virus was a “crucial state affair for the defence of the people” that required maximum discipline, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“In case the infectious disease spreading beyond control finds its way into our country, it will entail serious consequences,” KCNA quoted Kim as saying.

Two senior officials - party vice-chairmen Ri Man Gon and Pak Thae Dok - were sacked, and a party unit disbanded for corruption, the report said, indicating that they may have been involved in graft linked with the anti-epidemic measures.

“No special cases must be allowed,” he added, and ordered officials to “seal off all the channels and space through which the infectious disease may find its way”.

Pyongyang has not reported a single case of COVID-19, which has killed more than 2,800 people and infected over 84,000 people in dozens of countries since it emerged in neighbouring China.

North Korea has banned tourists, suspended international trains and flights and placed hundreds of foreigners in quarantine to prevent an outbreak. It has also reportedly postponed the new school term.

With loudspeakers blaring hygiene messages, ambassadors locked in their compounds, and state media demanding “absolute obedience”, North Korea’s anti-coronavirus measures have been described as “unprecedented” by diplomats.

South Korea, meanwhile, is battling a major outbreak of the virus with more than 2,300 cases - the highest number outside mainland China.

Germany’s ambassador to the United Nations has said the Security Council would adopt humanitarian exemptions to the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its weapons programmes, and allow the export of equipment to help North Korea fight the coronavirus.

But “the problem is that right now the North Koreans closed the borders,” Christoph Heusgen said Thursday after a closed-door Security Council meeting about the reclusive state.

The members of the Security Council called on North Korea “to allow this equipment in. So the population can be protected,” he added, without elaborating on the type of equipment.

The number of new cases reported in Mainland China is the lowest since the national health authority started compiling nationwide data last month, Reuters has reported.

Excluding Hubei province, where the new coronavirus outbreak originated in the country, there were just four new cases of infection reported on Friday. In Hubei itself, 423 new cases were reported, of which 420 were in Wuhan. So a total of 427 in mainland China.

South Korea reported 571 new cases on Friday, taking its total — the highest in the world outside China — to 2,337, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.

• Post amended to add total figure in China and correct number in Wuhan.

The US will postpone an ASEAN regional summit in Las Vegas to concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, Reuters has reported.

US president Donald Trump invited members of the 10-member association to a meeting on 14 March after he did attend a summit in Bangkok in November.

California has reported two cases of coronavirus in people who had not travelled internationally, or come into close contact with any other identified cases.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that officials were “aware of a second possible instance of community spread of Covid-19 in California”.

The patient is an older woman with chronic health conditions in San Jose. She did not have a travel history or any known contact with an infected person.

Ten of the 60 cases of the respiratory disease in the US are in California.

We’re expecting an update on that new coronavirus case in Queensland at 12.30pm local time.

In the mean time, you can read Melissa Davey’s explainer on whether Australians should be worried about coronavirus here.

US ‘totally ready’ for coronavirus, says Trump

US president Donald Trump has accused the democrats of politicising the coronavirus, and said the US are “magnificently organised” and “totally ready” for the virus.

Addressing a rally in South Carolina, Trump also accused the media — specifically CNN — of “hysteria” over the virus.

This is from CNN reporter Daniel Dale.

Trump then repeated his bit about South Korean film Parasite winning best picture at the Oscars (more on that here, if you’re interested) before returning to coronavirus:

The AHPPC said that with the increased spread of the disease, extending travel bans was “not likely to be feasible or effective.”

In the past few days, the numbers of cases of COVID-19 in South Korea, Italy, and Iran have been rapidly increasing. The AHPPC said the situation in Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore also remains a concern.

Whilst case numbers in some of these countries are rising quickly, the prevalence of illness is currently orders of magnitude lower than in Hubei Province.

An assessment of the risk of COVID-19 in those countries is based on many factors, including the identification of transmission chains, the number of reported deaths, recent trends in incidence, the incidence of exported cases and modelled estimates of expected numbers of cases based on travel patterns. The ability of countries to respond effectively to infectious disease outbreaks is also an important consideration, along with the feasibility of stringent mobility restrictions given the current phase of the epidemic globally.

With this change in epidemiology, extending travel bans to restrict travel from multiple countries is not likely to be feasible or effective in the medium term. However, it may be appropriate to consider self-isolation or practise social distancing upon return from higher risk regions.

On Friday the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) issued a statement about the effectiveness of quarantine measures.

It said over the past two weeks, direct connections between cases in other countries and China had decreased. It said the effectiveness of these quarantine measures and whether they remain adequate would be reviewed again in one week.

The travel restrictions and self-quarantine procedures for people coming from mainland China had been effective so far, with a more than 60% reduction in travellers, and no cases detected in more than 30,000 Australians returning from mainland China since 1 February.

The AHPPC statement said:

The only new COVID-19 detections in Australia in the last two weeks are eight cases in Australian passengers repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

There remains no evidence of community transmission in Australia, with thousands of negative tests for COVID-19 in the last week alone. The risk to the Australian community from travellers from mainland China appears to have reduced significantly since the inception of travel restrictions. This could justify some further easing of travel restrictions.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has reportedly sacked two top officials for “corruption” in a meeting on coronavirus in Politburo.

The Party daily Rodong Sinmun and Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Saturday that the leader sacked the two Workers Party of Korea (QPK) officials for “corrupt” acts. Both men were central committee vice-chairmen.

They were “harshly criticized” by Kim Jong Un “and their gravity and consequences were sharply analyzed,” the Rodong reported on its front page.

Good morning, it’s Calla Wahlquist in Melbourne taking over from Kevin Rawlinson.

Two more cases of coronavirus have been reported in Australia overnight, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 25.

One of those women is a 63-year-old woman on the Gold Coast in Queensland, who is now in the Gold Coast hospital. The woman had recently returned from Iran, which has emerged as a hotspot of the disease with the second-highest number of deaths outside of China. The Iranian deputy health minister Iraj Harirchi tested positive a few days ago.

Authorities in Queensland are now trying to trace back the woman’s movements to identify who she may have come into contact with. We’re expecting a press conference on this soon.

It is the ninth case in Queensland. Three cases are passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, and five more were people who had travelled to the Gold Coast from Wuhan province on holiday.

If you want to get in touch, you can follow me on twitter @callapilla and email me at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com

Amazon suspends job interviews over coronavirus fears

Amazon will be suspending in-person job interviews indefinitely, according to screenshots reported on by Gizmodo on Friday.

The move comes as the tech industry scrambles to respond to the coronavirus, which has killed nearly 3,000 people.

Amazon already stated it would cancel its appearances at a number of events and restrict global and domestic travel. The interview policy will affect more than 39,000 jobs open at the company, according to its own hiring site, and appears to be indefinite.

With racially tinged coronavirus fears keeping visitors from San Francisco’s Chinatown, Facebook is donating $25,000 to help the historic neighborhood’s small businesses.

Officials pledged today to donate $20,000 to the Chinese Newcomers Services Center, in addition to $5,000 in Facebook ad credits. They made the announcement alongside local lawmakers and San Francisco mayor London Breed, who declared a state of emergency in the city over the outbreak.

There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in San Francisco.

Whately said thoroughly washing hands and coughing or sneezing into a tissue before disposing of it remained the best way of limiting the spread of coronavirus. Asked about the increasing use of face masks, she told the BBC:

The advice I have been given is that members of the public are not particularly recommended to use face masks. They may be used by clinicians but actually they are not something that is recommended for the general public. The important thing is the handwashing advice and the use of tissues.

It is likely more people in the UK will contract coronavirus, a government minister has said. But Helen Whately, added that plans were in place should it become a pandemic. The Department of Health and Social Care minister told BBC Newsnight:

I can’t reiterate enough that we are well prepared but we do have to recognise that it is likely we will see more cases in the UK. We have plans in place and have carried out exercises so in the event of something like a flu pandemic, we are ready. And those plans have been continuously updated ever since the outbreak in China of the coronavirus.

Asked whether that meant mass gatherings could be banned and schools closed, such as in parts of Italy, she said such measures were “being considered”.

Clearly, how to deal with those sorts of things absolutely has been considered and is being considered. That is rightly all part of the planning.

But Whatley said there was still “very clear guidance” that “schools should not be, in general, planning to close”.

The Reuters news agency is reporting that the United States will postpone a meeting with leaders of Southeast Asian countries it planned to host on 14 March.

The US president, Donald Trump, had invited leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian nations to meet in Las Vegas after he did not attend a summit with the group in Bangkok in November.

Reuters cited two unnamed US officials it said were familiar with the matter. The Guardian has not independently confirmed the report and the US State Department did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

BTS, the K-Pop band, have cancelled four concerts due to be held in Seoul in April as South Korea’s coronavirus cases jumped by nearly 600 – a larger rise than the daily increase reported in China.

The seven-piece boyband, one of the biggest acts in the world, had scheduled the gigs at the South Korean capital’s Olympic Stadium to promote their new album “Map of the Soul: 7”. More than 200,000 fans were expected to attend, their agency Big Hit Entertainment said in a statement.

A second coronavirus case in a northern Californian patient with no links to international travel has reportedly been identified. The Washington Post quoted Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins centre for health security, as saying:

I think there’s a strong possibility that there’s local transmission going in California. In other words, the virus is spreading within California, and I think there’s a possibility other states are in the same boat. They just haven’t recognised it yet.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, has overseen military drills, state media KCNA say, in a rare public outing amid efforts to prevent an outbreak of the coronavirus in the isolated country.

The Reuters news agency reports that North Korea has not confirmed any cases of the virus, but that state media said a month-long quarantine period had been imposed for people showing symptoms and “high-intensity” measures were taken including reinforcing checks in border regions and at airports and sea ports.

On 16 February, Kim made his first public appearance in 22 days to visit a mausoleum marking the anniversary of the birth of his father and late leader Kim Jong Il.

The military drill was to “judge the mobility and the fire power strike ability” on the frontline and eastern units and ended to a “great satisfaction” of Kim, according to KCNA. The network said:

In a separate dispatch, KCNA said Kim has also convened a meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s powerful politburo where a stricter enforcement of “top-class anti-epidemic steps” was discussed to prevent the spread of the virus. It quoted Kim as telling the meeting:

In case the infectious disease spreading beyond control finds its way into our country, it will entail serious consequences. No special cases must be allowed within the state anti-epidemic system.

He instructed the officials to “seal off all the channels and space through which the infectious disease may find its way, and strengthen check-up, test and quarantine,” KCNA added.

The US state department has raised its alert level for travel to Italy due to the coronavirus outbreak, telling Americans to reconsider travel there.

Tracing the origins of the latest case of coronavirus - the first to have been caught within the UK - will be “crucial” in preventing more extensive spread, experts have said. Prof Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, has said:

This case – a person testing positive for novel coronavirus with no known link to an affected area or known case – marks a new chapter for the UK, and it will be crucial to understand where the infection came from to try and prevent more extensive spread.

This was always a concern – this is a virus that frequently causes symptoms very similar to mild flu or a common cold, and it’s easily transmitted from person to person. This means it can easily go under the radar.

This was always a real possibility and one of the reasons that the government introduced more extensive surveillance. This will prove invaluable and help us understand where this virus is and who is infected. This will be essential if we are to implement measures to slow its spread and allow our NHS to respond. We can also do our bit by making sure that we are vigilant with our own personal hygiene.

Dr Michael Head, a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton, has said:

Given the increase in cases around Europe and outside of China, it’s unsurprising to see a probable case of human-to-human transmission here in the UK. There will be significant efforts to look at how this patient came to be infected, who is the index case in the UK, and to see if any there are any other secondary cases. Though this is a notable development here in the UK, the overall risks to the public right now remain unchanged.

Dr Stephen Griffin, an associate professor at the University of Leeds’ section of infection and immunity, has said:

Whilst the first person-to-person transmission within the UK may come as a shock to many, it was really only a matter of time. It is increasingly clear that SARS-COV2 is capable of being spread by people showing very mild, or perhaps completely unnoticeable symptoms, which has allowed it to escape the lockdown in China, albeit within a relatively small number of individuals.

However, this has been sufficient to promote the seeding of small, sporadic community outbreaks in numerous countries, the majority of which have been successfully contained. Nevertheless, we have also seen the beginnings of much larger outbreaks in countries like South Korea and elsewhere, which are likely to have been seeded after a similar fashion. This highlights the challenge faced once the virus becomes established.

What now becomes critically important is our ability to identify, isolate and care for infected individuals, and to trace their recent contacts.

If localised outbreaks remain contained then it should be possible to limit the impact upon the UK. However, I suspect the frequency of small outbreaks might increase in coming weeks as the source countries of imported cases become more diverse.

If we experience a burgeoning epidemic as seen in South Korea, it will represent a significant challenge to our already stretched NHS and public health infrastructure. As directed by WHO, we should use this time window to invest and prepare for such a potential outbreak, whether it happens or not. In particular, we must ensure that our health care professionals are equipped with the appropriate environments and protective measures such that they can provide the necessary care to the public with minimal risk that they might themselves become infected.

Downing Street will allow ministers to go on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme amid public concern over the spread of coronavirus, according to the Times:

El Salvador’s migration authorities will be ordered to deny entry to travellers arriving from Iran, a health measure intended to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, the former nation’s president Nayib Bukele has said.

Bukele said on Twitter that Salvadorans and diplomats arriving from the Middle Eastern country, which has one of the largest outbreaks outside China, will have to spend 30 days in quarantine. El Salvador has no reported cases of coronavirus.

New measures to combat the coronavirus outbreak in Germany, including the widening of cross-border travel guidelines and the cancellation of major international events, have been enacted by Berlin’s crisis committee.

It expanded regulations for air and sea passengers, requiring passengers from South Korea, Japan, Italy and Iran to report their health status before entry. Previously, only passengers from China had been required to do so.

Lebanon will close its schools from 29 February until 8 March as a precautionary measure against the spread of coronavirus, its education ministry statement has said. The country confirmed its fourth coronavirus case and has restricted flights from countries affected by the outbreak.

During a live-streamed news conference with Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, Pence has said: “In every case, people are being treated and by all accounts are doing well.”

Only one American with coronavirus remains in hospital, the US vice president Mike Pence has said.

Google will cancel an upcoming summit and restrict staff travel after confirming that an employee has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

The staff member diagnosed with the illness is in the company’s Zurich, Switzerland office, a Google spokesman told CNBC on Friday. The office will remain open.

We can confirm that one employee from our Zurich office has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. They were in the Zurich office for a limited time, before they had any symptoms. We have taken — and will continue to take — all necessary precautionary measures, following the advice of public health officials, as we prioritise everyone’s health and safety.

The diagnosis comes as tech companies scramble to respond to the virus, which has infected at least 84,000 people worldwide. Google cancelled its Google News Initiative summit, which was scheduled to take place in Sunnyvale, California in late April.

Major companies, including IBM and Verizon, pulled out of annual cybersecurity conference RSA in San Francisco this week and Facebook cancelled its upcoming F8 developer conference in May.

Meanwhile, Amazon has begun to restrict all nonessential employee travel in the U.S. and has restricted all travel to China “until further notice.”

The British cruise ship turned away by the Dominican Republic is awaiting approval to dock on the Caribbean island of Sint Maarten, officials say.

According to the Associated Press, Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines said it had reported a small number of influenza-like cases on board that did not appear linked to the new coronavirus – and that the patients had recovered.

The ship sailed to the island and is awaiting approval to dock there, local port officials have said.

Public Health England (PHE) has confirmed the latest case is a resident of Surrey and it that it’s working with the county council to manage the situation. Dr Alison Barnett, the centre director for PHE South East, said:

Public Health England is contacting people who had close contact with a confirmed case of Covid-19.

One of the latest cases is a resident of Surrey and we’re working closely with NHS colleagues in that area as well as Surrey county council to manage the situation and help reduce the risk of further cases.

Close contacts will be given health advice about symptoms and emergency contact details to use if they become unwell in the 14 days after contact with the confirmed case.

This tried and tested method will ensure we are able to minimise any risk to them and the wider public.

Surrey county council’s interim director of public health, Ruth Hutchinson, added:

Surrey county council is working with health colleagues to do everything we can to stop the virus spreading and ensure the people of Surrey are protected.

Good hygiene is the best prevention and there are some simple steps you can take to protect you and your family by washing your hands regularly and thoroughly, and if you cough, cover your mouth and nose with a tissue.

The Department of Health and Social Care has said the virus was passed on in the UK but the original source of the virus was “unclear”. It added that there was no “immediately identifiable link” to overseas travel.

The virus was passed on in the UK but the original source of the virus is unclear at this stage. We do not currently have complete understanding of the chain of transmission in this case, but there is no immediately identifiable link to overseas travel.

Given the recent increases in international case numbers, especially Europe, it is highly likely that we will soon see some instances of community transmission in the UK.

Whitty has said:

One further patient in England has tested positive for Covid-19. The virus was passed on in the UK.

It is not yet clear whether they contracted it directly or indirectly from an individual who had recently returned from abroad. This is being investigated and contact tracing has begun. The patient has been transferred to a specialist NHS infection centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’.

The total number of cases in England is now 18. Following confirmed cases in Northern Ireland and Wales, the total number of UK cases is 20.

Amazon tells employees to defer all non-essential travel

Amazon has said all employees should defer non-essential travel, including within the US, in a significant escalation by the world’s largest online retailer to guard against the spread of the coronavirus among its ranks.

Dave Clark, the senior vice president of worldwide operations, notified employees of the change on Thursday, which Amazon confirmed to Reuters.

The acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, has accused the media of stoking fear over the coronavirus as a plot to take down Donald Trump, Politico reports.

Speaking at a conservative activist conference in Maryland, Mulvaney suggested the coronavirus was not as serious as other viral outbreaks.

At any particular time, 20 million people in this country are going to have the flu. The flu kills people, it does. This is not Ebola, OK? And I’ll tell you what that means in a sense.

It’s not Sars. It’s not Mers. Why do we say that? When you look at the severity of diseases, one of the ways you can look at it is looking at the percentage of people who get it who die. I know that’s sort of hard-hearted, but that’s sort of how we look at it.

But Mulvaney added that the US would “probably” experience school closures as Covid-19 continued to spread around the world.

Are you going to see some schools shut down? Probably. May you see impacts on public transportation? Sure. But we do this. We know how to handle this.

So, that’s one of the things – that’s the kind of message you try to get out. There are professionals who know how to handle this.”

You can keep up with all our live US political coverage here:

Four more people have died in Italy from coronavirus, Reuters reports the country’s civil protection agency as saying on Friday.

The latest deaths bring the total in Italy to 21, while the number of those testing positive for the illness jumped to 821 from 650 the day before.

The outbreak, which began last week in Italy’s northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, has made the country the hardest-hit in Europe and has led to draconian measures and a sharp reduction in economic activity.

Lombardy will ask the government to maintain the containment measures implemented against the outbreak for at least another week, the regional government said on Friday.

Antonia Wilson, a reporter on the Guardian’s travel desk, has investigated which countries currently have travel restrictions related to the coronavirus outbreak. She writes:

International travellers are facing tighter restrictions at airports as the number of countries denying entry to passengers who have recently visited China, Italy and other regions with reported cases of coronavirus increases.

Cases of Covid-19 have now been confirmed in 58 countries. Restrictions are becoming more widespread, and major airports are putting preventive measures in place. A document featured on the International Air Transport Association (IATA) website, lists countries where restrictions are in place.

Read more:

The Vatican has dismissed speculation that Pope Francis is anything more than “slightly unwell” after he cancelled official audiences for a second day, Reuters is reporting.

Francis, 83, appeared to have a cold and spoke with a slightly hoarse voice at his general audience on Wednesday. He coughed during an afternoon Ash Wednesday service in a Rome church, his last appearance outside the Vatican.

Matteo Bruni, a Vatican spokesman, said on Friday morning that the pope had celebrated early morning mass as usual. “But he thought it was best to postpone today’s official audiences. The meetings scheduled to take place in Santa Marta will take place regularly,” Bruni said.

Later, Bruni said: “There is no evidence that would lead to diagnosing anything but a mild indisposition. Even this afternoon, the Holy Father’s meetings continued in Santa Marta.” However, he conceded that the pope was still “slightly unwell”.

Iceland has confirmed its first case of Covid-19, local media reports. The man is in isolation at Landspítali hospital after testing positive for the virus.

The man is reportedly not seriously ill, but tested positive for coronavirus after recently returning from northern Italy – but outside the area considered especially high risk for catching the virus.

Boris Johnson is under fire from opposition parties for waiting until next week to chair a Cobra meeting on the coronavirus outbreak. The meeting is scheduled to be held on Monday.

Labour has accused Johnson of acting as a “part-time prime minister”. The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said: “Our part-time prime minister needs to get a grip of this escalating situation quickly. It shouldn’t take another three days for this meeting to take place.”

The acting leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, said: “People across the country are anxious and concerned about coronavirus. They want to see leadership.

“The Liberal Democrats called on Boris Johnson to chair a Cobra meeting weeks ago to ensure everything was being done to prepare for a potential coronavirus outbreak. With the NHS already so stretched, it’s gobsmacking that the prime minister has delayed chairing Cobra for so long.

“Just like his failure to visit communities hit by flooding, on coronavirus Johnson seems like he’d rather bury his head in the sand than hear for himself what the experts are saying and what his ministers are doing.”

Ofqual, the exam regulator for England, says it is considering how to manage the dangers of a coronavirus outbreak disrupting this summer’s GCSE and A-level exams, Richard Adams, education editor, reports.

Students are due to sit A-levels – crucial for university entry – in May and June, but a widespread outbreak of Covid-19 at that point could mean that, in worst-case scenarios, students and staff may be unable to take the exams due to illness or quarantine restrictions.

In a statement Ofqual said: “We are working closely with awarding organisations and the Department for Education to consider how to manage any particular risks to the smooth running of exams and assessments should there be a widespread outbreak of coronavirus.

“We will update our existing guidance to reflect any specific arrangements schools and colleges should put in place if required. In the meantime, students, schools and colleges should continue to prepare for the summer exams and assessments as usual.”

A-levels and GCSEs are taken from the second week of May until the middle of June, with exam results published in mid-August. Disrupted A-level results could complicate the process of university applications, which rely in most cases on students gaining specific exam results. But in a period of difficulty universities may use other methods to allot places, such as previous exam results.

The Foreign Office has confirmed the death of a Briton who was onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

A spokesman said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Japan and are in contact with local authorities. Our sympathies and thoughts are with his family at this difficult time.”

Aer Lingus has confirmed that the person from Northern Ireland infected with Covid-19 travelled on the airline to Dublin airport.

In a statement the airline said: “Aer Lingus can confirm that the patient in Northern Ireland who has been diagnosed with the Covid-19 virus travelled with the airline from northern Italy to Dublin.

“Aer Lingus is co-operating fully with the HSE in relation to the Covid-19 developments and is liaising with the Department of Foreign Affairs, other government departments and the relevant authorities as required.

“Aer Lingus will continue to assess the situation based on the guidance received.”

Moscow authorities are deporting 88 foreign nationals who violated quarantine measures imposed on them as a precaution against coronavirus, the RIA news agency cited the city’s deputy mayor as saying on Friday.

Hundreds of people have been quarantined in Russia and Moscow authorities have carried out raids on potential carriers of the virus – individuals at their homes or hotels – and used facial recognition technology to enforce quarantine measures.

My colleague Kim Willsher, our Paris correspondent, reports:

A woman from Cannes has tested positive for the coronavirus, the first in the Côté d’Azur region in the south of France.

The 23-year-old was admitted to a special isolation unit in hospital in Nice after being found to be carrying the Covid-19 virus on Friday following a visit to Milan in Lombardy.

The authorities are waiting for the results of tests on a second person from the area.

David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes, said the woman’s condition was “satisfactory”. He said he had been in contact with the regional health agency and was reassured there was “no particular cause for concern for the public health authorities”. An investigation is under way to trace anyone with whom the patient was in contact.

Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, who is seeking re-election in municipal elections next month, said he would be reducing the time spent campaigning.

Estrosi announced that the Nice carnival this weekend was cancelled as a “preventative measure”. The nearby town of Menton has cancelled its annual Fête du Citron (Lemon Fête), a series of events due to be held over the weekend.

The Cannes film festival committee said it was monitoring developments and said it was too early to say whether the event would go ahead. The 73rd annual festival is due to take place from 12-23 May.

“In due course and depending on the occurrences, the Festival de Cannes will naturally take all the necessary measures to ensure the protection of all those attending and to preserve their health during the Cannes event,” a spokesperson told Variety.

Mexican authorities have confirmed the country’s first two cases of coronavirus, among the few confirmed cases in Latin America, says Reuters.

The two men had travelled recently to Italy, where they had been in direct contact with an Italian national who resides in Malaysia, the deputy health minister Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, told reporters.

A 35-year-old man with a possible coronavirus infection went through a second test that turned up positive early on Friday, López-Gatell said. The man is in isolation in Mexico City. At least five family contacts have also been placed in isolation.

His case is connected to the second confirmed case in the northern state of Sinaloa, which is still pending the results of a second test.

Our Pablo Gutiérrez has created this set of maps illustrating how Covid-19 is spreading across the world.

Prof Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, has responded to media reports of a dog in Hong Kong being tested “weak positive” for coronavirus.

“There is no evidence that the human novel coronavirus can infect dogs and it would be incredible for a virus to make so many species jumps in such a short space of time,” he said.

“We have to differentiate between real infection and just detecting the presence of a virus – these are very different – and the fact that the test result was weakly positive would suggest that this is environmental contamination or simply the presence of coronavirus shed from the human contact that has ended up in the dog’s samples.

“In truth this is incredibly irresponsible because the last thing we need to do is create mass hysteria about the possibility of dogs being infected, and therefore potentially transmitting this virus when there is absolutely no evidence for this whatsoever.”

Researchers at the Sacco hospital in Milan say they have isolated the Italian strain of the coronavirus, reports Lorenzo Tondo. The scientists say the discovery will help to develop a vaccine and new treatments to contain the virus.

Early in February, Italian researchers from the Spallanzani hospital in Rome successfully isolated Covid-19, which allowed the country to immediately activate tests on patients.

“The virus previously isolated by researchers at the Spallanzani hospital is precisely the Chinese one, originating in Wuhan, while the coronavirus that we have isolated prevents the viral strain spreading in Italy,” Claudia Balotta, an immunologist at the Sacco hospital, told the Corriere della Sera.

“Viruses reshuffle their genetic makeup to better bind to cells in the new host,” Tullio Prestileo, a doctor of infectious diseases at the Benfratteli hospital in Palermo, told the Guardian. “By spreading from one country to another, the virus originating in Wuhan will obviously reshuffle its genetic patrimony and the virus strain in China will have some slight differences from the one in Italy or Germany.”

Thanks to the discovery, the Italian researchers believe they can now “trace the journey of the virus from China to Europe and detect the date of its first spread in the country”.

The GMB union is the latest body to issue a warning about the threat the coronavirus poses to workers in the gig economy.

Mick Rix, the GMB national officer, said:

The threat of Coronavirus is a huge problem for employers and workers across the UK. But workers in the so-called gig economy, or on zero-hours contracts, are left abandoned and penniless if they have to self-isolate.

Once again the bogus self-employment model is screwing over the disadvantaged. GMB is calling on all employers – regardless of the contract – to do the right thing and pay their workers if they have to take time off due to the global health crisis.

The union said that in one recent case a delivery driver was contacted by a customer who considered themselves high risk. The driver told the company, which instructed her not to come back into work. This meant she faced the prospect of not being able to earn any money until she was given the all-clear.

Public Health England has issued new advice on the coronavirus in places of education. A revised poster issued this morning says: “You should wash hands with soap & water or hand sanitiser … on arrival at any childcare or educational setting.”.

The Geneva motor show has been postponed by six months, following Switzerland’s ban on large gatherings. Organisers said it had become increasingly difficult for delegates to arrange visas, or fix flights to the show, given the escalating crisis over Covid-19.

You can read the latest developments in our business live blog:

Here’s some more on the plans for a Cobra meeting:

A No 10 spokesman said: “The prime minister is keen to chair Cobra on Monday to ensure that everything that can be done is being done.”

Boris Johnson spent four hours visiting Kettering hospital during the night shift on Thursday night. During his visit he spent time discussing preparations for dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Guardian’s science correspondent, Hannah Devlin, has this piece busting the most common coronavirus myths:

The Associated Press has this updated list of all the reported cases of coronavirus around the world:

Mainland China: 2,788 deaths among 78,824 cases, mostly in the central province of Hubei.
Hong Kong: 92 cases, 2 deaths.
Macao: 10 cases.
South Korea: 2,337 cases, 13 deaths.
Japan: 927 cases, including 705 from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, 9 deaths.
Italy: 650 cases, 15 deaths.
Iran: 388 cases, 34 deaths.
Singapore: 96.
US: 60.
Germany: 53.
Kuwait: 45.
Thailand: 41.
France: 38 cases, 2 deaths.
Bahrain: 36.
Taiwan: 34 cases, 1 death.
Malaysia: 25.
Australia: 23.
United Arab Emirates: 19.
Spain: 17.
Vietnam: 16.
United Kingdom: 15.
Canada: 14.
Sweden: 7.
Iraq: 6.
Oman: 6.
Russia: 5.
Croatia: 5.
Switzerland: 5.
Greece: 4.
Philippines: 3 cases, 1 death.
India: 3.
Israel: 3.
Lebanon: 3.
Pakistan: 2.
Finland: 2.
Austria: 2.
Netherlands: 2.
Egypt: 1.
Algeria: 1.
Afghanistan: 1.
North Macedonia: 1.
Georgia: 1.
Estonia: 1.
Lithuania: 1.
Belgium: 1.
Romania: 1.
Belarus: 1.
Nepal: 1.
Sri Lanka: 1.
Cambodia: 1.
Norway: 1.
Denmark: 1.
Brazil: 1.
New Zealand: 1.
Nigeria: 1.
Azerbaijan: 1.

Health authorities in Ireland have said that people who sat within two rows of the person from Northern Ireland infected with Covid-19 on the plane from northern Italy to Dublin have been contacted.

PA Media said the woman followed advice in reporting concerns to a GP, and “self-isolated” at home while awaiting the results of testing.

The Irish health chief, Dr John Cuddihy, said:

Each of the stages of this person’s journey have been identified and all relevant contacts in all of those stages of transport have been contacted (and) traced.

Ireland’s chief medical officer, Dr Tony Holohan, and the head of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dr Cuddihy, held a news conference in Dublin to provide details of Ireland’s preparedness.

Dr Holohan said they were depending on an individual with symptoms travelling back from an affected area identifying themselves, contacting the local health authorities, and that was what had happened in this particular case.

The former chancellor and Evening Standard editor, George Osborne, says its time for the government to go on a “war footing” with the coronavirus:

So coronavirus has finally arrived in sub-saharan Africa, with an Italian man who arrived in Nigeria three days ago becoming the country’s first case of the disease.

The case is in Lagos, a massive overcrowded city, which will raise fears that the virus might already have spread in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, and possibly further afield.

Nigeria is a major hub for air transport, commerce and culture. It has deep links with China, with continual and substantial traffic of people and goods. However, this first confirmed case appears to have originated in Italy.

The WHO’s regional director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, has warned that the “window of opportunity the continent has had to prepare for coronavirus disease is closing”.

Egypt had the first case of Covid-19 in Africa, announced on 14 February. Algeria declared it had a case on Tuesday – another Italian adult who arrived in the country on 17 February.

Earlier this month, officials at the WHO warned that porous borders, a continuing flow of travellers and poorly resourced healthcare systems meant the risk of an outbreak across Africa was “very, very high” and raised significant concerns about the ability of “fragile health systems” to cope with the epidemic.

But recent weeks have been used to reinforce testing regimes, isolation facilities and for public messaging too.

“Nigeria has dramatically improved its ability to manage the outbreak of a major pandemic since the Ebola scare in west Africa in 2014. Many of the lessons from keeping the country free of Ebola have informed the steps taken since the news of the coronavirus epidemic first broke,” wrote Folasade Ogunsola, professor of Clinical Microbiology, University of Lagos, on The Conversation website.

Wales’s chief medical officer, Dr Frank Atherton, said in a statement:

I can confirm that one patient in Wales has tested positive for coronavirus (Covid-19). All appropriate measures to provide care for the individual and to reduce the risk of transmission to others are being taken.

I can also confirm that the patient had travelled back to Wales from northern Italy, where the virus was contracted.

I’d like to take this opportunity to assure the public that Wales and the whole of the UK is well prepared for these types of incidents. Working with our partners in Wales and the UK, we have implemented our planned response, with robust infection control measures in place to protect the health of the public.

While the government has not put anybody forward to be interviewed about the coronavirus this morning, Jeremy Hunt, the chairman of the Commons health committee and former Tory health secretary, has been on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He said we need to consider the “social and economic trade-offs” we are willing to make to contain Covid-19.

In Wuhan, it appears that it has peaked at less than 5% of the population getting it. And we are having to make contingency plans for 70% of the population getting it, and in terms of the number of lives lost, there is a massive difference, hundreds of thousands of lives difference, if you can contain it to less than 5%.

And, so, the question we have to ask ourselves, and I think the government is right to start to spell this out – but I think they need to go further – is what are the social and economic trade-offs that we are prepared to make to keep the spread of the virus at that low level.

We are starting to hear some of the things that the government is considering. We are a mature democracy and I think it is perfectly possible to count on the co-operation of the public to comply with guidelines and recommendations made by the government without the kind of authoritarian measures that we have seen on our TV screens.

The trade union umbrella body, the TUC, is urging employers to give workers time off to seek medical advice if they feel they are developing symptoms of coronavirus. The organisation says many people are at risk of getting no financial support when sick because their pay is too low or they are on zero-hours contracts.

The TUC warned that almost 2 million workers do not earn enough to qualify for statutory sick pay, including one in 10 working women. They said that people forced to self-isolate because of the virus, and those who become ill, should not lose out on pay.

The TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said:

Employers have a duty of care to support workers affected by coronavirus. No one should have to worry about making ends meet if they have to self-isolate or if they fall ill. They should be able to focus on getting better.

The threat of coronavirus shows why sick pay should be a day one right for everybody. It’s not right that millions of UK workers miss out on this protection. The government must ensure everyone gets statutory sick pay, however much they earn.

Reuters is reporting that Kuwait has confirmed two more cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 45. A health ministry official said there had been no deaths and that those infected had either travelled to Iran or been contaminated by people who went there.

Guardian US reporter Amanda Holpuch writes about the unique challenges the US might face in tackling the coronavirus:

The US health agency overseeing coronavirus has told Americans that to curb the inevitable spread of the respiratory illness, they only need to take simple steps: wash your hands, stay home from work if you feel sick and speak to a doctor if you have symptoms of the disease.

But in the US healthcare system, things are never as simple as they seem. From the cost of healthcare to the lack of guaranteed paid sick days in the US, experts say containing the coronavirus requires systemic change beyond more people washing their hands.

“For many Americans who have insurance and have a good job with an understanding employer, and I’m not an expert on the labor market, those recommendations are plausible,” David Blumenthal, president of the global health thinktank the Commonwealth Fund, told the Guardian.

“They are not necessarily workable for people who have no health insurance or poor health insurance – so that’s about a fifth of the American population.”

Here’s a reminder of the situation in the UK:

As of 27 February, a total of 7,690 people have been tested in the UK, of which 7,675 were confirmed negative and 15 positive. (The Department of health updates the figures every day at 2pm.)

The official advice to Brits returning from abroad is to call NHS 111, stay indoors and avoid contact with other people immediately if you’ve travelled from:

• Hubei province in China in the last 14 days, even if you do not have symptoms.
• Iran, lockdown areas in northern Italy or special care zones in South Korea since 19 February, even if you do not have symptoms.
• Other parts of mainland China or South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan or Thailand in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if your symptoms are mild).
• Other parts of northern Italy (anywhere north of Pisa, Florence and Rimini), Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar or Vietnam since 19 February and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath (even if your symptoms are mild).

After President Emmanuel Macron’s warning on Thursday that France was on the brink of a coronavirus epidemic, officials there have announced 20 new cases emerging in the past 24 hours.

A dozen cases are centred in the Oise area of northern France, which has emerged as one of the most significant clusters, and concern has homed in on connections to the 110 military airbase in Creil.

Although the health minister, Olivier Véran, said France was not yet in an epidemic he said the country was prepared for one. Two other French citizens who had recently returned from a trip to Egypt were reported hospitalised in Dijon and Brest. Another individual, in Annecy, had recently returned from northern Italy.

New Zealand heath and government authorities are detailing the country’s responses, and the individual case which has been reported today.

It’s a New Zealand citizen who recently returned from Iran, and they are improving.

Public health will be contacting people who were in the same row, and the two rows ahead and behind the person on their final leg - a flight from Bali on 26 February.

They’ll be required to self-isolate for 14 days, under regular communication with local public health.

The chance of a community outbreak remains low.

“The risk of this disease is being very well managed,” said health minister David Clark, adding that all protocols have been put in place.

When they arrived back in New Zealand they traveled home in a private car and then called health workers when they began to feel unwell.

“They followed all of the steps you’d hope would be followed,” said Clark. They tested negative twice before testing positive.

New Zealand is the 48th country to identify a case of the virus, Clark said, although a widespread outbreak was still thought to be unlikely.

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield added: “We have been preparing for this for some weeks, and we are ready.”

“A range of cross government groups are working together” and guided by the pandemic plan, said Clark.

“We are well prepared because we’ve had time to be prepared.”

Border restrictions have minimised the chance of further cases arriving.

He said his main message to the community was for anyone concerned to ring the helpline number 0800 358 5453, use good handwashing hygiene and cough etiquette.

We are expecting a press conference from New Zealand authorities shortly, on the case detected there.

In the meantime we have a few more details from AFP.

Health officials said the person, reportedly a woman aged in her 60s, was being treated in Auckland City Hospital, and they are “in an improving condition in isolation”.

Officials said the person arrived in Auckland on Wednesday and family members went to the hospital after becoming concerned about the individual’s condition.

The officials urged any passengers on Wednesday’s final leg of the Emirates airline journey, which goes from Bali to Auckland, to contact authorities if they were concerned.

However, authorities downplayed the risk to the public saying the situation was being well managed.

“Although we have our first case of Covid-19, the chances of community outbreak remain low,” the statement said.

AFP has written about the measures being taken in Beijing to control the spread of the virus, amid fears there could be a resurgence. There was a fresh cluster of cases this week, and two deaths reported on Friday.

This week, Beijing authorities announced new rules in a bid to disperse crowds in the city of over twenty million people, including many migrant workers from other regions.

Supermarkets must allow an average of two square metres per customer - a mandate which not only forces shops to track how many patrons enter, but also means shoppers have to wait outside once stores hit maximum capacity.

To prevent crowds from gathering, Beijing authorities have also tightened admission into its parks, especially as spring approaches.

After a spike of activity over the weekend, reported official news agency Xinhua on Tuesday, the city’s park authority has clamped down on the flow of visitors.

Ten of the capital’s top parks, including the historic Summer Palace, will cap the number of visitors at any given time to 30 percent of their maximum capacity, said Xinhua.

The Sacramento Bee is reporting three students living in dormitories at UC Davis has been placed in isolation after one showed “mild” symptoms of the virus.

The student has a runny nose and a cough after potentially being exposed to someone with coronavirus, officials said. The individual is in isolation at a home off campus. The two other individuals in isolation are the student’s roommates and are not showing signs of the virus.

Lithuania has reported its first case of the virus, in a woman who returned this week from a visit to Italy’s northern city of Verona.

In a statement, the Lithuanian government said the woman had been isolated in hospital in the northern town of Siauliai following her return on Monday.

She has been under observation since, and is showing only slight symptoms, with no elevated temperature at the moment, it added.

There are also more details about the case in Nigeria, the first for sub-Saharan Africa, via Reuters.

The country’s health minister Osagie Ehanire, said in a statement the case was an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and returned from Milan, Italy to Lagos on 25 February.

His infection was confirmed by the Virology Laboratory of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, part of the Laboratory Network of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.

“The patient is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms,” said the minister, adding that he was being treated at a hospital in the Lagos district of Yaba.

“We have already started working to identify all the contacts of the patient, since he entered Nigeria,” said Ehanire.

New Zealand has confirmed the first case of the virus, according to RNZ.

It’s reporting the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has confirmed the diagnosis in a permanent resident of New Zealand who had recently been in Iran.

Things are going from bad to worse on the financial markets with the selloff intensifying throughout the Asian trading session.

• The Nikkei is down 4.12% in Tokyo
• ASX200 in Sydney is down 3%.
• In Seoul, the Kospi index has lost 2.87%
• Hong Kong has shed 2.5%
• Shanghai is off by 3.37% after escaping the worst in the last few days.
• MSCI world index down 0.5% after 3.3% drop on Thursday. It is off 9.3% this week, on course for its biggest weekly decline since a 9.8% plunge in November 2008.
  
• The Vix volatility index – also known as the fear index – spiked to 39, its highest since the European debt crisis of 2011.
• Brent crude oil is down 2.2% at $51.01 per barrel
  
• Currencies seen as risky bets such as the Australia dollar, the Indonesian rupiah and the Indian rupee were sharply down.
• Safe havens such as gold, Japanese yen and US government bonds were up.

AFP:

Internet search giant Baidu has warned the deadly coronavirus outbreak could drive revenues down in the first quarter, as it reported steady annual revenue growth.

The Beijing-based group has forecast a plunge of between five percent and 13 percent due to the economic uncertainty surrounding the new virus, which is rapidly spreading around the world.

It is forecasting revenues between 21.0 billion yuan ($3.0 billion) and 22.9 billion yuan in the first three months of the year.

“The coronavirus situation in China is evolving, and business visibility is very limited,” the firm said in its statement, adding that the outlook was “subject to substantial uncertainty”.

The operator of Tokyo’s two Disney resorts, Disneyland and DisneySea, said Friday the parks would be closed for around two weeks on fears over the outbreak of the new coronavirus.

“Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea have decided to proceed with an extraordinary closure from Saturday February 29, 2020, through Sunday 15 March”, after the government urged measures to limit the spread of the virus, the operator said in a statement.

The operator Oriental Land said it currently hoped to resume operations from 16 March.

“Currently, we plan to reopen on March 16. But we’ll decide when to open by looking at the situation and developments. We’ll also consult (official) agencies concerned,” a spokesman told AFP.

Hong Kong’s Disneyland Resort remains closed “as a precautionary measure in line with preventive efforts” against the coronavirus.

Coronavirus chaos is causing congestion as high trade volumes clog the systems of brokers.

“We are seeing high volumes of trading today,” onliner broker Commsec, which is owned by the Commonwealth Bank, says in a message to website customers.

“Please be advised that our contact centres are busier than usual and you may experience longer than usual wait times.”

At about 2.45pm on Friday the benchmark ASX200 index was down 2.9%, with the falls led by the Harvey Norman retail empire controlled by Gerry Harvey.

Harvey Norman shares have plummeted more than 11% so far today. While other retails have suffered from coronavirus contagion this week, until today, when it released a disappointing profit result, the Harvey Norman empire had largely escaped unscathed.

Also smashed were gold miners Gold Road Resources - down 14% - and Silver Lake resources, which was down more than 10.5%.

But every sector has been hammered today, with all but 13 stocks in the index recording a fall.

Home affairs minister Peter Dutton says Australia has “one of the toughest border protection system in the world, and probably the best health system in the world” and is well prepared.

He urged Australians to continue to go out and support communities and small businesses, and travel, especially to bushfire affected areas of NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

Hyundai has suspended production at one of its South Korean factories, in the city of Ulsan, after a worker tested positive for the virus, a union source has told Reuters.

A Hyundai spokesman said the company was checking the report.

Shares of the automaker dropped more than 5% after the news, while the wider market was down 2.6%.

Some developments in business and finance:

• Hyundai, the South Korean carmaker, has suspended production at a factory in Ulsan after one of its workers tested positive for the virus. Shares of the automaker dropped more than 5% after the news, while the wider Korean market was down 2.6%.
• Tokyo Disneyland says it will be closed until mid-March because of concerns about transmission in large crowds. Both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea will be closed starting Saturday, the theme parks’ operators, Oriental Land, said on Friday.

• Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said on Friday that the government had reserve funding it could use to tackle the hit from the virus. “I’m aware of views that if the virus spreads, it could have a huge impact on the economy,” Abe told parliament. “We’re therefore watching developments carefully.”
  
• Futures in Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, have fallen 1.7% to $50.83 a barrel, a 14-month low. Fears of a major economic slump also sent US crude futures to $46.28 per barrel.

Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish are among riders who will be tested for the coronavirus after the UAE Tour was cancelled on Thursday when two participants contracted Covid-19.

The final two stages of the race were due to take place on Friday and Saturday but the race was abandoned when the Italian duo were taken ill. All riders and staff were confined to their rooms at the Crowne Royal Plaza Abu Dhabi Yas Island, with concerns that the potential outbreak could now extend to the UCI world track championships in Berlin after some riders who took part in the early stage of the UAE Tour already in Germany.

From Reuters:

Robert Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told the U.S. Congress on Thursday that his agency is aggressively evaluating how long coronavirus can survive and be infectious on surfaces.

“On copper and steel its pretty typical, it’s pretty much about 2 hours,” Redfield said at a House of Representatives hearing on the government response to the fast-spreading virus. “But I will say on other surfaces - cardboard or plastic - it’s longer, and so we are looking at this.”

He said infections contracted from surfaces rather than through the air could have contributed to the outbreak on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

Hunt was also asked about the Olympics in Japan later this year: “The question of the Olympics will be determined in some months. Japan and the IOC will be making global decisions and Australia will be a part of those discussions,” he says.

Murphy says being flexible in responding to the virus is key:

We don’t quite know how this virus, if it comes to Australia, will behave. And if it will be a slow or a rapid spread. We just need to be prepared for all eventualities.

We’re hearing from Australia’s health minister, Greg Hunt. He says the federal government will lead an advanced primary planning process, including an aged care planning process as part of its emergency response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Australia enacted its pandemic plan on Thursday.

Peru has put specialists on round-the-clock shifts at its biggest airport, in preparation for the emergence of Covid-19, and begun setting up specialist mobile units.

Coronavirus fears are spreading to the Caribbean, where several countries are turning cruise ships away from their ports, Bloomberg reports.

On Thursday local officials in the Dominican Republic refused to let passengers off the Braemer, with about 1,500 people on board.

The company reportedly labeled this an “overreaction”, due to a “small number of influenza-like cases on board”, while also saying no guests or crew had shown symptoms consistent with coronavirus.

In Cozumel, Mexico, passengers on the MSC Meraviglia are waiting for test results after the ship was refused docking in Jamaica and GRand Cayman.

After three weeks in quarantine, all passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship have been evacuated, the Australian is reporting.

“Princess Cruises can confirm that disembarkation of all guests aboard Diamond Princess is complete,” the company said.

“Specialists from the Princess Care Team and Family Assistance programs remain available to both guests and team members.”

It had been under strict quarantine since early February, when 10 people tested positive.

Crew members will be allowed to return home if they test negative for the virus after two weeks in quarantine in Tokyo.

The Diamond Princess has been a particular flashpoint for the virus, with more than 3,500 passengers on board. The vuris spread among the passengers and more than 700 developed Covid-19, and four died.

A significant number of passengers were allowed to disembark and return to their home countries - many of which then put them in quarantine, suggesting unease with Japan’s handling of the trip. Several of those returned later developed Covid-19.

A quick recap on the devastation in financial markets.

Graeme Wearden reports financial markets have suffered fresh, heavy losses, as the coronavirus crisis escalates - threatening to cause major economic disruption.

Britain’s FTSE 100 slumped by 3.5%, taking it down more than 10% from its recent peak. The index has lost 8%, or £152bn, this week alone.

There were similar heavy losses across Europe, where stocks were hit by fresh cases of Covid-19 - including in Italy - and a warning from France’s president that an epidemic could be close.

Wall Street had another turbulent day too, with the Dow suffering its worst points fall ever - down 1,20 points. Further losses are expected on Friday.

Traders are very concerned about the impact of more cases in the US, with California revealing it is tracking 8,400 people.

Goldman Sachs’s warned that US corporate profit growth could be wiped out is also casting a shadow.... while Bank of America cutting its growth forecasts to an 11-year low.

There are also fears that the virus could even push the eurozone into recession.

In Australia, Ben Butler reports: Coronavirus fears have driven the Australian market down for the fifth day running, with the benchmark ASX200 index dropping almost 3.2% shortly after the opening bell.

Retailer Harvey Norman, which had experienced only very small falls this week, finally succumbed to selling pressure after releasing its half year results this morning.

Within half an hour of the opening bell its shares tumbled 7.9%, the third biggest fall among ASX200 stocks.

The company blamed “widespread bushfires and associated severe reductions in air quality that affected many communities” that hit franchisees during the peak Christmas shopping season for a 4.1% fall in its profits for the six months to the end of December compared to the same time the previous year.

Buy-now-pay-later company Afterpay, which has been something of a market darling, was the biggest loser in early trade, diving 9.4%.

Also plunging were stocks with exposure to the Chinese market or international travel, both of which have been disrupted by the virus crisis.

Online flight booking site Webjet and travel agency Flight Centre both fell more than 4%, national carrier Qantas dropped 3% and Air New Zealand, which is listed on the Australian exchange but is not part of the ASX200 index, was also down 3%.

Also punished was Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Fortescue Metals, which exports iron ore to China. Its stock fell almost 5.8%.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the coronavirus outbreak. Catch up on our earlier coverage here.

Before we begin, here’s a summary of the top news lines so far:

• The Dow Jones index of leading US shares has suffered its biggest points fall in history amid the coronavirus crisis, closing down 1,190.95 in New York.
  
• The Australian market plummeted on opening.
• Northern Ireland and the Netherlands have reported their first cases of the virus.
• In the US Californian health officials are monitoring 8,400 people for symptoms after their arrival on domestic flights, but they have only an “inadequate” 200 test kits.
• The New York Times reported a US government whistleblower claiming health workers interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then mingled with the general population.
  
• There are 38 confirmed cases of coronavirus in France, more than doubling the tally in 24 hours.
• 50 Brits were among 130 guests told they can leave a coronavirus-hit Tenerife hotel.
• The death toll in Italy has reached 17.
• Facebook Inc said it would cancel its annual developer conference, F8 2020, amid rising concerns of the coronavirus outbreak.
• MSF has accused Italian authorities of discriminatory action after one of their search and rescue vessels in the Mediterranean was put under quarantine following the disembarkation of 276 passengers who had been rescued at sea.

Shortly we will be getting China’s daily figures, in the mean time you can read our top stories below.

• Coronavirus fears trigger biggest one-day fall on US stock market
• Mike Pence ‘not up to task’ of leading US coronavirus response, say experts
• What are super-spreaders and how are they transmitting coronavirus?
• UK schools and offices could close for up to two months