Coronavirus pandemic reaches world leaders, disrupts world sporting events | News from the world

The coronavirus has reached the highest levels of government and the world of sport, the Prime Minister of Canada isolating himself when his wife is tested positive, the Arsenal manager and a Chelsea player being diagnosed and the Grand Prix from Australia canceled a few hours before the start of the event. .

Thursday evening, Sophie Grgoire Trudeau, wife of Justin Trudeaus, announced that she had been diagnosed with Covid-19 after returning from the United Kingdom. Her symptoms were mild and she started two weeks of isolation. Her husband also started isolation and was healthy without any symptoms.

At the United Nations in New York, a diplomat from the Philippines has also tested positive, in what would be the first case at United Nations headquarters.

The Acting United Nations Ambassador to the Philippines, Kira Azucena, said: To date, the Philippine mission is locked out, and all personnel are responsible for self-quarantine and consult a doctor in case of symptoms. We assume that we have all been infected.

The mission is believed to have 12 diplomats in New York, located on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. The unnamed woman is said to have been asymptomatic when she was at the United Nations building on Monday before falling ill on Tuesday.

In Australia, Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton confirmed on Friday that he had tested positive for Covid-19.

White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said President Donald Trump does not need to be tested, despite meeting with a Brazilian official last weekend who been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Grisham said the pair had almost no interaction, although it was represented together.

In the sports world, the revelation Thursday night that Arsenals manager Mikel Arteta and Chelsea player Callum Hudson-Odoi, 19, had tested speculation that the Premier League season could be suspended.

The two men were isolated, as were the first Arsenals team and the full Chelseas team. Chelsea were scheduled to play Aston Villa on Saturday afternoon, but it seems unlikely that the match will continue. On Friday, the Premier League called an emergency meeting with its clubs regarding the matches.

The main football divisions in Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United States have all been suspended in the middle of the epidemic, while the German Bundesliga and Ligue 1 of France organize matches behind closed doors.

In Australia, the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Melbourne was canceled just as the event was scheduled to start on Friday. On Thursday, a member of the McLaren team tested positive for Covid-19.

Following Trump's decision on Wednesday evening to restrict air travel from Europe to the United States, a number of countries have stepped up measures to contain the virus.

• Australia advises against all public gatherings of 500 or more people starting on Monday. Schools and universities will remain open, but all citizens have been asked to reconsider non-essential travel.

• Singapore has declared that it will refuse entry or transit to visitors who have visited Italy, France, Spain or Germany in the past 14 days. He also advised against traveling to these countries and prohibited cruise ships from mooring.

• In the UK, Boris Johnson said that anyone with symptoms of coronavirus, no matter how mild, such as a continuous cough or high temperature, should stay home for seven days. School trips abroad must be stopped and he said that people over 70 with serious health problems should not go on a cruise.

• In Italy, all Catholic churches were closed by order of the Vatican.

• Satellite images appear to show mass graves in the Iranian city of Qom.

• Asian markets fell at the start: Australia fell 7% before ending up 4%; Japan Nikkei fell 7% before rising to 3%; Koreas Kospi lost 8% before climbing to 2%, and New Zealand fell 8% before climbing to just under 5% in the red.

• Nepal has closed all of its Himalayan peaks, including Mount Everest, after China closed its mountain side on Thursday.

• Ireland has become the last European country to close schools, joining others, including Italy, Spain, Ireland and Belgium.

As measures intensified to fight the virus, China released single-digit figures for new infections and deaths for the first time since it started publishing daily reports on 25 January. There were eight new confirmed cases (five in Wuhan) and seven new deaths (all in Wuhan).

The city of Yichang, with a population of 4 million, in central Hubei Province, announced that it will loosen travel restrictions on Friday, allowing people to enter and exit , the government announced on Friday. It will also allow the return of people from outside the province, using a health code surveillance system that uses the mobile phone. Yichang has had 931 Covid-19 diagnoses and 36 deaths.

South Korea also reported encouraging figures, reporting an additional 110 cases on Friday and only one new death. The country, which until about 10 days ago was the most affected outside of China, has just under 8,000 confirmed cases and 67 deaths.

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