Coronavirus pandemic threat now 'very real', can still be controlled: WHO

Central Board of Secondary Education announces schedule for conducting special exams in March/April in the subjects for which the exams had been cancelled due to violence in North East Delhi. The new dates are between March 31 and April 8, 2020.

Central Board of Secondary Education announces schedule for conducting special exams in March/April in the subjects for which the exams had been cancelled due to violence in North East Delhi. pic.twitter.com/AvwBaWkYWx

— ANI (@ANI) March 9, 2020

Prime Minister Modi's visit to Bangladesh next week at invitation of PM Sheikh Hasina has been deferred, ANI quotes external affairs ministry.

"Deferment applies also to the large gathering planned for March 17, at which PM Modi was invited. Bangladesh govt has advised us that fresh dates for these events will be conveyed later."

Lakhs of women in Kerala on Monday celebrated the annual Attukul Pongala festival in capital Thiruvananthapuram's Attukal Devi temple even as the number of new cases of novel coronavirus rose to six in the state, reports HT correspondent .

Many devotees were seen wearing masks to contain a possible infection due to the heightened alert but the number of worshippers was relatively low this time. Temple’s officials, however, said more than 2.6 million people participated in the 10-day festival.

Read the full story here

Buses of Delhi Transport Corporation were sanitised at the Rajghat depot to contain the spread of coronavirus: ANI.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist Gita Gopinath says that government policymakers will need to implement “substantial” targeted fiscal, monetary and financial market measures to combat the economic impact from the rapidly spreading coronavirus, reports Reuters.

In a blog posting on the IMF’s website on Monday, Gopinath said her top recommendations involved putting cash directly into the hands of households and businesses. Broad interest rate cuts may instill confidence but would be effective in stimulating activity only once business conditions normalize, she added.

Global oil markets plunged almost a third Monday, the biggest drop since the 1991 Gulf War as Saudi Arabia slashed prices in a battle for market share after Russia rejected OPEC calls for deep output cuts, reports AFP.

Saudi Arabia had been pushing for a large reduction in the face of a dramatic coronavirus-fuelled slump in demand but Russia balked, preferring to stick with what it had in an effort to preserve income.

The stand-off sparked ferocious trade as the world's benchmark crude contracts, Brent North Sea and WTI, each nosedived as much as 30 percent, before recovering slightly.

British supermarkets start imposing limits on the purchase of certain goods after shelves were emptied because of coronavirus fears, reports AFP.

Toilet paper, anti-bacterial hand gel, tinned food, soap and paracetamol have been in short supply both in stores and online because of panic buying. The situation has been fuelled by recommendations last week by health authorities for Britons to "plan ahead" in case they are forced to self-isolate for several weeks.

But the country's chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said he believed there was "absolutely no reason" for the public to panic buy.

Tesco last weekend introduced measures to limit purchases to a maximum five items for products including pasta, anti-bacterial hand-wipes and gels, and long-life milk.

Others such as Waitrose have limited the online sale of some wipes and soaps, while Walmart subsidiary Asda is only allowing the purchase of two anti-bacterial gels in stores and online.

Last week, pharmacy chain Boots limited the sale of disinfecting hand gel, after sales skyrocketed because of the spread of the virus.

An Indian Air Force transport aircraft will be sent to Iran on Monday night to bring back Indians stranded in the coronavirus-hit nation, official sources said, reports PTI.

The C-17 Globemaster military aircraft is expected to depart from the Hindon airbase around 8 pm, they said.

China has shut down 14 of the 16 makeshift hospitals it had opened in a rush to receive covid-19 patients at the epidemic epicentre Wuhan as the number of new infections continued to fall rapidly, the national health commission (NHC) said on Monday.

The number of fresh cases was 40, the NHC said on Monday, the lowest since it started publishing the data from the third week of January. The 22 new deaths, all in Hubei except one, pushed the toll to 3,119 with more than 80,700 people now infected in mainland China.

Wuhan converted public venues such as exhibition centers and gymnasiums into 16 temporary hospitals to treat patients with mild symptoms and isolate the source of infection,

Saudi Arabia on Monday closed off air and sea travel to nine countries affected by the new coronavirus as Mideast stock markets tumbled over fears about the widening outbreak's effect on the global economy.

The state oil giant Saudi Aramco led the financial losses, dropping by 10% on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange and forcing a halt to Aramco's trading.

Italy on Monday said its month-long lockdown of northern regions responsible for 40 percent of overall production was designed to save the rest of the economy from falling victim to the new coronavirus.

At 366, the European country has the largest death toll from COVID-19 outside

China itself.

Moody's Investors Service on Monday cut its growth forecast for India to 5.3 per cent for 2020 from 5.4 per cent estimated earlier, as it expects the coronavirus outbreak to dampen domestic demand globally.

In its update on Global Macro Outlook for March, Moody's said the virus outbreak has spread rapidly outside China to a number of major economies. "It now seems certain that even if the virus is steadily contained, the outbreak will dampen global economic activity well into Q2 of this year," it said.

Air India Express on Monday said passengers can reschedule their tickets free of cost for all bookings made between March 12-31, in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. The airline, the budget arm of national carrier Air India, flies to 13 international destinations, mostly in the Gulf region.

"In view of the uncertain travel situation due to COVID-19, free date change will be permitted up to three days prior to the flight departure, for all new bookings effected between March 12, 2020 to March 31, 2020, for travel up to April 30, 2020," the airline said in a statement.

Cancellations charge would be applicable.

Number of coronavirus cases worldwide crosses 110,000: AFP

IndiGo cancels flights to Doha till March 17 following travel ban imposed by Qatar on Indian nationals, due to coronavirus scare: Statement.