Apple CEO Tim Cook has informed employees in most global offices that they may work from home between March 9–13 as the company grapples with the "unprecedented" coronavirus outbreak, according to a memo first reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Axios.
The big picture: Apple joins a chorus of other companies encouraging workers in Seattle or the Bay Area to work from home, including Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Salesforce. Apple, like these other companies, said in the memo will continue to pay its hourly staff while full-time workers telecommute.
Cities around the country should start preparing for more cases of coronavirus and think about canceling large gatherings and closing schools "to prevent more deaths," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
Why it matters: Adams said the country is moving away from trying to contain the virus to a "mitigation phase," meaning it is now spreading within communities and that people who have no recent travel history are contacting it.
As the coronavirus spreads further within the U.S., we're getting a pretty good picture of what to expect next — and how deeply our lives will change.
Why it matters: There are all kinds of scary scenarios that are more speculative, but we don't need to go down that road — there are already enough grim headlines and disruption in the changes we know are coming.
Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte signed a decree Saturday putting much of the country's north — including Venice and Milan — on lockdown Saturday to try to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Why it matters: Italy has the largest number of cases in Europe — 5,883 by early Sunday, per Johns Hopkins University data. At least 16 million people are now in mandatory quarantine in the Lombardy region, along with 14 provinces, the BBC notes.Among those to test positive is the head of Italy’s Democratic Party, Nicola Zingaretti, per Bloomberg.
The Grand Princess cruise ship, stranded off San Francisco's coast with 21 people aboard who've tested positive for the novel coronavirus, has been cleared to dock in Oakland, California, on Monday, operator Princess Cruises said in a statement.
Details: Princess Cruises initially said in a statement early Sunday authorities had cleared it to arrive at the Port of Oakland later in the day "to begin disembarking guests who require acute medical treatment and hospitalization." But it later said after further review by state and federal authorities the docking day had changed, with a "time to be determined."
Two Floridians have died after testing positive for the novel coronavirus following international travel, the state health department said on Saturday.
What's happening: Two new presumptive positive COVID-19 cases were also announced in Florida on Saturday — the Broward County residents, a 75-year-old man and a 65-year-old man, are in isolation after testing positive for the virus in a state lab, with additional CDC confirmation pending.
A U.S. Marine in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, has become the first person in the state to contract the novel coronavirus, Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement via Twitter on Saturday evening.
The big picture: The Marine was being treated at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital after recently returning from overseas, where he was on official business, Hoffman said. Defense Secretary Mark Esper and the White House have been briefed on the case. On Friday, a U.S. Navy sailor stationed in Naples, Italy, became the first in Europe to test positive for the virus. An American soldier stationed in South Korea was quarantined on Feb. 25 after testing positive for COVID-19.
Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.
Washington, D.C., announced its first presumptive positive novel coronavirus case on Saturday and Mayor Muriel Bowser confirmed later that a second person who visited the city had presented with symptoms in Maryland.
Details: Bowser told a news conference that the D.C. resident in his 50s who tested positive to the virus had"no history of international travel and no close contact with a known case."
Crossed lines and poor communication between the U.S. government and a leading pharmaceutical company appear to have complicated the breakneck search for a coronavirus treatment.
Why it matters: Pharmaceutical giant Gilead, in its a rush to begin clinical trials on a potential treatment, may have violated federal law instead of waiting for slow-to-come federal approvals on drug exports.
A CPAC 2020 attendee tested positive for the novel coronavirus in New Jersey on Saturday, the American Conservative Union confirmed, indicating that the attendee's exposure to the virus took place prior to the conference.
Why it matters: CPAC speakers included President Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has declared a state of emergency as the number of coronavirus cases in New York state continues to tick up.
The state of play: Cuomo tweeted that there are 76 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in New York as of Saturday afternoon. Of those cases, 57 are concentrated in Westchester County, just north of New York City.
The novel coronavirus is spreading quickly in cities nowhere near Wuhan, China, and has begun impacting a slew of international sporting events as the window to prevent a global pandemic narrows.
The state of play: The alpine skiing World Cup Finals and major Italian cycling races were canceled on Friday as the coronavirus continues to spread, AP reports. The Italian government has mandated all sporting events take place without spectators through April 3.
If the growing novel coronavirus outbreak becomes a lasting pandemic, it could accelerate fundamental changes in the economy, politics and the workplace.
The big picture: A truly global infectious disease event like COVID-19 can be every bit as transformative for the future as a global war or economic depression.
At least 34 people have been rescued from a collapsed hotel in the southeastern Chinese province Fujian that held people under quarantine amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, South China Morning Post reports, citing several local media outlets.
What's happening: About 70 people were in the Xinjia Express Hotel when it collapsed on Saturday evening local time, AP reports. The hotel was reportedly converted by the city to observe people who had contact with virus patients.
Stanford University and the University of Washington are among the first colleges in the U.S. to suspend in-person classes as the novel coronavirus spreads in California, Washington state and beyond.
The big picture: Universities are mobilizing emergency planning teams to determine what shutdowns could look like, as more Americans test positive for the coronavirus, The New York Times reports. Some schools have told students to prepare for a shutdown if a faculty member or student becomes infected.
K-12 schools weighing a shift to online learning in the shadow of the coronavirus are grappling with what to do about kids who don't have internet at home.
Why it matters: The "digital divide" between internet access haves and have-nots has long been an abstract public-policy debating point, but this public health crisis is bringing the issue home in a concrete way.
Nebraska announced its first presumptive positive case of the novel coronavirus on Friday.
What's happening: The patient is a woman in her 30s who returned from England in February and was hospitalized on Thursday, per a press release from the state health department. The case is travel-related and health officials have not found evidence of COVID-19 spreading in the state.
President Trump called Washington Gov. Jay Inslee a "snake" on Friday while touring the Centers for Disease Control headquarters in Atlanta, as Washington state battles a coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 11 people.
Driving the news: Vice President Mike Pence held a press conference with Inslee on Thursday to address the state's efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
