What's Happening: Virus closes schools, Louvre reopens
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, center, eats a pizza with French Ambassador to Rome Christian Masset, right, and pizza maker Gino Sorbillo, in Sorbillo's restaurant, in Rome, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. According to reports, Di Maio invited the French ambassador for a pizza after French channel Canal plus broadcast a satirical video of a fake Italian pizza maker coughing on a pizza and calling it "Corona Pizza". (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, center, eats a pizza with French Ambassador to Rome Christian Masset, right, and pizza maker Gino Sorbillo, in Sorbillo's restaurant, in Rome, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. According to reports, Di Maio invited the French ambassador for a pizza after French channel Canal plus broadcast a satirical video of a fake Italian pizza maker coughing on a pizza and calling it "Corona Pizza". (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
A man wearing a mask walks past a billboard depicting lightning in Beijing on Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The mushrooming outbreaks in other countries contrasted with optimism in China, where thousands of recovered patients were going home and the number of new infections dropped to the lowest level in more than six weeks. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
A man wearing a face mask walks past an entrance sign for Bank underground train station backdropped by the Royal Exchange building in London, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. British authorities laid out plans Tuesday to confront a COVID-19 epidemic, saying that the new coronavirus could spread within weeks from a few dozen confirmed cases to millions of infections, with thousands of people in the U.K. at risk of death. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
South Korean army soldiers wearing protective gears spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus on a street in Gyeongan, South Korea, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. (Kim Hyun-tae/Yonhap via AP)
South Korean army soldiers wearing protective gears move to spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus in Gyeongan, South Korea, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. (Kim Hyun-tae/Yonhap via AP)
This Feb 27, 2020, photo released by Louis Wang, shows his work desk with laptop and textbooks at home in northeast China. Wang, a middle school history teacher in northeast China, said his workload has ballooned due to the arduous process through which online classes must be approved. Chinese schools turning to online learning during a virus outbreak are running into the country's ubiquitous and often arbitrary internet censorship. (Louis Wang via AP)
Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against the new coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The coronavirus epidemic shifted increasingly westward toward the Middle East, Europe and the United States on Tuesday, with governments taking emergency steps to ease shortages of masks and other supplies for front-line doctors and nurses. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
An Indian students wears a self-made mask and listens to a teacher at a government school in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. A new virus first detected in China has infected more than 90,000 people globally and caused over 3,100 deaths. The World Health Organization has named the illness COVID-19, referring to its origin late last year and the coronavirus that causes it. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Austrian rescue personnel checks the body temperature of persons during an informal meeting of oil ministers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Roland Zak)
In this picture taken on March 1, 2020 a child rides his bicycle outsited a closed Allianz Stadium in Turin, northern Italy. The Italian Cup semifinal between Juventus and AC Milan scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, 2020 in Turin has been postponed indefinitely as part of measures to stop the spread of the virus outbreak in Italy. (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)
In this picture taken on March 1, 2020 a padlock locks a gate of the Allianz Stadium in Turin, northern Italy. The Italian Cup semifinal between Juventus and AC Milan scheduled for Wednesday, March 4, 2020 in Turin has been postponed indefinitely as part of measures to stop the spread of the virus outbreak in Italy. (Marco Alpozzi/LaPresse via AP)
Local and tourists walk along a nearly empty St. Mark's square in Venice, Italy, Tuesday, March 3, 2020. G-7 countries say they are ready to take action to cushion the economic impacts of the new coronavirus outbreak, a statement that comes after a few days of wild market swings. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A student wearing a face mask sits in the library of the Politecnico University in Milan, Italy, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. Italy's virus outbreak has been concentrated in the northern region of Lombardy, but fears over how the virus is spreading inside and outside the country has prompted the government to close all schools nationwide for two weeks. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)
In this picture taken with a slow shutter speed, far smaller crowds than usual of Muslim pilgrims circumambulate the Kaaba, the cubic building at the Grand Mosque, in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, March 4, 2020. The coronavirus outbreak disrupted Islamic worship in the Middle East as Saudi Arabia on Wednesday banned its citizens and other residents of the kingdom from performing the pilgrimage in Mecca, while Iran canceled Friday prayers in major cities. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)
BERLIN (AP) — More authorities are considering widespread school closures among a raft of measures being taken around the world to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
These are some of the latest developments Wednesday:
SCHOOL CLOSURES, PILGRIMAGES CANCELED
The government in Italy, which has reported more than 2,500 cases and 79 deaths, is closing all schools nationwide for two weeks in an effort to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. Schools in the Seattle area also mulled teaching students online in the event of prolonged closures. Washington state has recorded nine deaths from COVID-19.
Saudi Arabia has banned all pilgrimages to the holy city of Mecca in a bid to tackle the outbreak. It's the latest example of the virus disrupting religious practices in the Middle East. Iran, which has been hard-hit by the outbreak with almost 3,000 cases and over 90 deaths, has canceled Friday's Islamic prayers in major cities. in Israel, the chief rabbi is urging observant Jews to refrain from kissing mezuzot, small items encasing a prayer scroll that are posted by Jews on doorposts.
SOUTH KOREA SEEKS HOSPITAL BEDS, NORTH KOREA DENIES CASES
The South Korean city of Daegu is short of thousands of hospital beds for patients with the coronavirus. Still, Prime Minister Chung Se-Kyun is expressing confidence that the country can cope with the outbreak as new infections announced Wednesday almost halved compared to the day before.
Neighboring North Korea claims that no one in the country has been infected with the new virus despite sharing a nearly 1,450-kilometer (900-mile) border with China, where COVID-19 first appeared late last year. The government views public reports on infectious diseases to be a matter of state secrecy, raising concerns that North Korea might be hiding cases, harming global efforts to contain the outbreak.
Meanwhile, even tiny Liechtenstein and the remote Faroe Islands reported their first cases Wednesday.
MORE ATHLETES ON GULF CYCLING TOUR INFECTED
Authorities in the United Arab Emirates say six more people linked to the canceled UAE Tour cycling race have been infected with COVID-19. The new cases are all linked to two previous cases involving Italians. Numerous sports events around the world have been canceled or postponed as authorities seek to clamp down on the virus' spread, including Wednesday's Italian Cup semifinal between rivals Juventus and AC Milan. Doubts remain over whether the Summer Olympics in Tokyo can take place as planned from July 24 -Aug. 9.
COMPANIES CURB BUSINESS TRAVEL
Many companies are cutting back on business travel, with some even stopping all staff trips. Online retailer Amazon told its 800,000 workers to postpone any non-essential travel, while Swiss food giant Nestle instructed its 291,000 employees to halt international travel until mid-March. Many companies and organizations are opting instead for virtual meetings and even making major announcements about new product presentations online.
LOUVRE REOPENS AFTER MUSEUM EASES WORKERS' FEARS
The world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris has reopened after museum managers promised new measures to ease workers’ fears about catching the virus from the thousands who visit every day. The measures include distributing more disinfectant gels and giving staff more time to wash their hands. Additionally, staff will only need to stand at the entrance to the room where Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” is displayed — a big draw for the museum's millions of yearly visitors — rather than standing inside. The Louvre will also stop accepting cash payments amid concerns that banknotes could harbor the virus
PROOF'S IN THE PIZZA
France's ambassador to Italy wolfed down a Neapolitan pizza Wednesday in a gastronomic apology of sorts after a French satirical program poked fun at Italy with a sketch featuring a “corona pizza.” Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has been working to preserve Italy's image amid a large number of infections that has caused tourism to tank across the country. The Canal Plus plug hit the minister particularly hard, since he hails from the Naples area. Ambassador Christian Masset told reporters that “we French love pizza” as he arrived for lunch at the Gino Sorbillo pizzeria. The owner also had a message for those who would attack the Italian tradition: “Don’t mess with our cuisine,” Sorbillo said. “It’s one of the last things we have.”
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