(Bloomberg) —
President Donald Trump promised “very dramatic” actions to support the U.S. economy as the World Health Organization said the threat of a pandemic is “very real.”
Infections climbed across Europe, prompting a nationwide lockdown across Italy, but signs of improvement emerged in Asia. China announced only 19 new cases, the lowest since Jan. 18 according to official figures.
Stocks stabilized after the deepest rout since the global financial crisis, as Trump said he will seek a payroll tax cut and “substantial relief” for industries that have been hit by the coronavirus.
Key Developments:
Cases surpass 113,000 worldwide; deaths exceed 3,900U.S. confirmed cases top 600; at least 24 deathsStocks stabilize after biggest rout since crisisChina’s Xi visits Wuhan for the first time since outbreakTrump hasn’t been tested for virusCalifornia county bans big gatherings, Coachella festival delay seenQantas slashes international flights
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Seoul Infections Monitored After Call Center Cases (2:03 p.m. HK)
South Korea is closely monitoring group infections in Seoul and surrounding areas after 50 confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported, Korea’s Centers for Disease Control & Prevention Deputy Director Kwon Jun-wook said at a briefing. Out of the 50 cases, 46 are employees of a call center in Seoul.
Hong Kong to Quarantine Italy Travelers (1:55 p.m. HK)
The Hong Kong government informed Italy that all travelers, residents or non-residents in Hong Kong, who have been to the European country will be placed in a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The new rules apply to all travelers who have been to Italy, regardless of region, in the previous 14 days from their arrival in Hong Kong, according to a statement on the Italian consulate’s website.
Travelers will be quarantined in centers set up by the government starting March 13. No self-isolation at home or hotels will be allowed, the statement said.
Virus Pushes Italian Hospitals Toward Breaking Point (1:25 p.m. HK)
Europe’s largest coronavirus outbreak is putting unprecedented strain on the Italian health-care system, with hospitals in the worst-affected areas close to the breaking point.
Italy went from having a handful of cases to the second-largest death toll after China in less than three weeks, flooding intensive-care units with hundreds of patients.
Lombardy, the region around Milan that accounts for more than a fifth of Italy’s economic output, is by far the worst-affected part of the country. It had 5,469 cases, including 440 in intensive care, as of Monday afternoon.
Finding more acute care beds is a “race against time,” Lombardy’s top health official, Giulio Gallera, said in a phone interview. “As of now the region’s health-care system is holding up well, but if the increase in the number of infected people in need of intensive care doesn’t slow down we could have issues.”
Philippines Has Just 2,000 Testing Kits as Cases Rise (12:53 p.m. HK)
The Philippines, with a population of more than 100 million, had only 2,000 coronavirus test kits available earlier this week as the number of infections jumped.
Its government once had 4,500 kits in stock, but the number dwindled to 2,000 by Monday as the number of people who wanted to be diagnosed surged, Health Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said on Monday. Confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian nation had increased to 24 Monday night.
Elsewhere in the region, Singapore, which has developed its own coronavirus diagnostic kit, is prepared to ship them to other countries, according to a Facebook post from Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat.
California County’s Ban Will Impact Sports Events (12:37 p.m. HK)
A California county’s ban on public gatherings exceeding 1,000 people threatens to disrupt National Hockey League and Major League Soccer games in the coming weeks, likely the first time that the coronavirus will impact events in the major U.S. sports leagues.
Santa Clara County on Monday announced that its public health officer issued a mandatory ban on gatherings with more than 1,000 people in an attempt to protect the community from the spread of the virus. It’s set to take effect on Wednesday and last for three weeks.
Hockey’s San Jose Sharks, who play in the county’s biggest city, have three home games in that span. Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes play at home once.
The Santa Clara ban is similar to ones put in place in a handful of European countries, including France, Switzerland and Italy. Europe’s epicenter of the outbreak, Italy, on Monday suspended all sporting events.
Coachella Organizers Aim to Delay Music Festival (12:01 p.m. HK)
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival organizers are aiming to delay the event in California after the confirmation of a coronavirus case prompted local health officials to declare a state of emergency, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Under the plan, Coachella — slated for April 10-12 and April 17-19 — would be rescheduled for October, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the change hasn’t been made public yet. Goldenvoice, which organizes the festival, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The move would attempt to preserve an event that’s become the world’s highest-grossing festival in recent years, generating more than $100 million annually, according to live-entertainment data provider Pollstar. This year’s lineup includes Rage Against the Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean.
Last week, organizers of South by Southwest canceled the celebration of technology, arts and music in Austin, Texas, citing concerns from city officials about the continuing spread of the coronavirus.
Qantas Slashes International Flights by 23% (11:48 a.m. HK)
Qantas Airways Ltd. cut almost a quarter of its international flights for six months, grounded most of its giant A380 jets and slashed management pay as the coronavirus outbreak hammers demand for travel.
The biggest reductions are in Asia, where the Australian airline’s capacity is now down 31% from a year earlier, Qantas said. The carrier also cut services to the U.S. and the U.K., or put smaller planes onto existing routes.
The overhaul, one of the most dramatic responses to the outbreak by any airline worldwide, was accompanied by wide-ranging cost cuts. The reductions are Qantas’s third — and deepest — cuts in less than a month. The sudden escalation shows how swiftly demand has cratered as the virus takes hold in North America and Europe.
Trump Package to Leave Out Travel Industry for Now (11:36 a.m. HK)
The U.S. economic package to be unveiled by President Donald Trump will leave out for now any aid for the travel industry, which has been battered by the coronavirus outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter, raising the risk that the plan won’t go far enough to satisfy investors.
As outlined by Trump in remarks Monday, the proposal will likely include a payroll tax cut and a short-term expansion of paid sick leave, according to the people, who described the plan on condition of anonymity ahead of its planned release on Tuesday.
While the White House wants to find a way to help airlines and hospitality companies reeling from a plunge in demand from travelers, administration officials remain uncertain about the best way to do so.
China’s Xi Pays First Visit to Wuhan Since Outbreak (11:31 a.m HK)
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the coronavirus epicenter of Wuhan for the first time since the disease emerged, state media said, a trip intended to project confidence that his government has managed to stem its spread domestically.
Xi arrived Tuesday morning in the capital of hard-hit Hubei province, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Wuhan, where the disease first emerged in December, has been quarantined since Jan. 23, in what some people see as a heavy-handed approach following earlier failures to act quickly enough to stem the spread.
U.S. Tests Fewer Than 5,000, Atlantic Reports (10:35 a.m. HK)
Only 4,384 people in the U.S. have been tested for the new coronavirus, nearly two weeks after the disease was found to be spreading across America, according to the Atlantic.
While more than 500 cases have been reported in the U.S., experts say the number is too small to reflect the full extent of the disease’s spread as not enough Americans have been tested, the Atlantic wrote.
“The lack of testing means that it is almost impossible to know how many Americans are infected with the coronavirus and suffering from Covid-19, the disease it causes,” the Atlantic wrote.
Trump Hasn’t Been Tested for Virus, White House Says (10:19 a.m. HK)
U.S. President Donald Trump has yet to be tested for the coronavirus, even as his incoming chief of staff and at least four other Republican lawmakers put themselves in quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person at a political event.
Mark Meadows, the veteran Republican congressman from North Carolina who is taking over as Trump’s top aide, joined Republican representatives Doug Collins of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida, who announced earlier Monday that they had entered self-imposed quarantine.
Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Paul Gosar, both of Texas, had earlier announced they had isolated themselves.
Trump attended the same event on Feb. 29 and recently spent time with both Collins and Gaetz. It isn’t clear whether the president encountered the infected individual when he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in suburban Maryland.
SEC Asks Employees to Work From Home (10:18 a.m. HK)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is encouraging employees at its sprawling Washington headquarters to work remotely beginning Tuesday amid concern that one of the agency’s workers may have contracted the coronavirus.
In an email to staff on Monday evening that was obtained by Bloomberg News, the SEC said that “out of an abundance of caution” it was requiring all people on the floor where the person sat to “telework.” The regulator said it was also reaching out to people with whom the person had been in contact, and that the agency had asked its landlord to have the area “deep cleaned.”
In a statement, the SEC confirmed that an employee was treated for respiratory symptoms and was being tested for coronavirus. The SEC told staff in the email that the employee hadn’t been at work since March 5 and that officials believed the person was “asymptomatic” while in the building.
Boeing Worker Quarantined (10:07 a.m. HK)
Boeing Co. said an employee from its Everett facility in Washington state has tested positive for the virus and is now in quarantine. The company has asked coworkers who were in close contact with the person to remain home in self quarantine and monitor their health. It also said it conducted thorough cleaning of work areas and common spaces.
Apple China IPhone Shipments Dive 60% (10 a.m. HK)
Apple Inc.’s iPhone shipments in China plunged more than 60% in February, when the coronavirus outbreak shut down scores of its stores and hampered key manufacturing partners across its largest international market.
Shipments of Apple’s marquee device dropped to about 494,600 units from a year earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations based on monthly data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, a government think-tank. Overall mobile phone shipments, including Android devices, slid 56% to 6.4 million units, the academy said. Those year-earlier comparisons were skewed by the fact that the Lunar New Year holidays fell in February of 2019, versus January this year.
Since erupting in China in January, the Covid-19 epidemic has hit Apple’s supply and demand. While factories are gradually restarting after enforced quarantine, lingering production bottlenecks risk hurting global iPhone revenue in coming months.
South Korea Reports 131 New Coronavirus Cases (9:48 a.m. HK)
South Korea’s health ministry confirmed 131 more coronavirus cases in the nation, raising the total to 7,513, according to a statement. The number continues a declining trend since March 6. Total deaths in the country rose to 54 from 51 previously.
Japan Cabinet Approves Bill for Emergency: Kyodo (9:09 a.m. HK)
Japan’s cabinet approved a bill that would enable the declaration of an emergency over the new coronavirus if needed, Kyodo News reported.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be able to declare an emergency in the case of a rapid nationwide spread of the infection, Kyodo said. Doing so would empower regional governors to call on local people to avoid going out, and for limits on the use of facilities where large numbers of people gather.
While his expert panel said Monday that there was, as yet, no explosive spread of the disease in the country, Abe told parliament he wanted to prepare for the worst-case scenario. Japan has confirmed more than 500 cases of the virus, with nine dead.
KKR Shuts London Offices After Virus Case (9:04 a.m. HK)
A KKR & Co. employee in London has the coronavirus, leading the private equity firm to close both of its offices in the city while it has them sanitized. KKR has asked employees at the London offices to work from home until further notice and is requiring all staff who had close contact with the person infected with the virus to quarantine themselves for 14 days.
Firms around the world have been preparing for more employees to work from home and separating parts of their work forces to limit the potential of an outbreak to disrupt operations key to financial markets. Firms including Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc and Wells Fargo & Co. have confronted cases of the virus among staff in recent days.
China Reports 19 New Cases, 17 New Deaths (8:26 a.m. HK)
China reported 19 additional coronavirus cases as of March 9, according to a statement from the National Health Commission, bringing the total number of infections to 80,754. The new cases are the lowest since Jan. 18.
The death toll in China rose by 17 to 3,136, with all of the latest fatalities occurring in Hubei. Discharged patients rose by 1,297 to a total of 59,897.
U.S. Sports Leagues Limit Locker Room Access (7:53 a.m. HK)
Major U.S. pro sports leagues are banning media and anyone other than necessary personnel from team locker rooms.
Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League will limit locker room and clubhouse access to players and “essential employees” of teams, the leagues said in a joint statement. Media access will be maintained in designated areas outside locker rooms and clubhouses, the statement said.
The move is the latest response by sports organizations to the coronavirus outbreak. But it stops short of some of the more extreme measures that some leagues have imposed around the world, such as canceling games or holding competitions with no spectators.
Italy to Extend Travel Ban Nationwide (4:52 p.m. NY)
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he’ll move to extend restrictive measures on travel — currently in force in the north — throughout the rest of the country in a bid to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
WHO Says Outbreak Close to Being a Pandemic (12:53 p.m. NY)
The spread of the new coronavirus is very close to being a pandemic after the disease has reached more than 100 countries, Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, said at a daily briefing.
“The threat of a pandemic has become very real,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “But it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled.”
Ryan said countries that shift solely to mitigation are conceding defeat and that they shouldn’t give up on containment efforts. The WHO said China and South Korea’s efforts have borne fruit, and that it hopes to see results from Italy’s recent measures in coming days.
The mortality rate for people 80 and over exceeds 20%, said Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, citing figures from the WHO’s mission to China.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Drew Armstrong at [email protected], Jeff Sutherland, Kara Wetzel
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