February 26 coronavirus news

As a "precautionary measure" 35 European Parliament interns have had their upcoming internship postponed to later in the year. Their 5 month internship was due to run from the beginning of March to July.   

 A European Parliament Spokesperson says:

More context: The European Parliament runs two 5-month internship windows per year, from March through July and October through February. It is open to any EU citizen aged over 18 with University level degree or diploma. A limited number of Non-EU citizens are able to apply as well.

Royal Jordanian Airlines has suspended its Amman-Rome flights until further notice. The suspension starts today.

The carrier also said it is consolidating several flights from Amman to its stations in the parts of Asia, bringing the average of cancellations of weekly Asian operations up to 50%.

New York City has no confirmed cases of coronavirus, but officials are “taking every step necessary” to protect the health of New Yorkers.

The mayor's office noted as the “nature of the threat continues to evolve,” the city stands “ready to escalate our response as necessary.”

Here's the full statement from the Mayor's office:

Brazil’s Bovespa dropped 5% after Brazil's heath minister confirmed the country's first case of coronavirus today.

The patient is a 61-year-old Brazilian man who arrived in Sao Paulo after traveling to Italy. This is the first confirmed case of coronavirus in Latin America.

The first two positive cases of the novel coronavirus in Pakistan have been confirmed, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr. Zafar Mirza said on his official Twitter account Wednesday.

Mirza Tweeted:

The Italian government is banning all sporting matches and public events until next month in several regions of Northern Italy.

The new measures, approved last night, extends the urgent steps the government is taking for the containment of the coronavirus outbreak outside the exclusion zone. 

The decree bans all events and sport matches in public and private locations until March 1. 

The new extended measures will cover the regions of:

Additionally, the decree suspends educational trips in the entire country until March 15, and it introduces "smart working" which encourages Italians to work from home.

Pets can catch coronaviruses — the group of virus the novel coronavirus belongs to — and the infections can become severe.

Sometimes the viruses can lead to deadly diseases. One can cause feline infectious peritonitis in cats and something called a pantropic canine coronavirus can infect cats and dogs, according to a 2011 study.

Cats can catch SARS, but none of the infected cats developed symptoms, according to the study. The feline coronavirus typically is asymptomatic, but can cause mild diarrhea. Feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP, can cause flu-like symptoms for a cat, but can also be more serious for cats and can cause organ failure, but it is not contagious and will not spread from animal to animal or person to person.

Pantropic canine coronavirus that can impact cats and dogs can be fatal to dogs, studies show.

These particular dog and cat viruses don't seem to spread to humans.

The US has now confirmed 59 cases of coronavirus, according to an update Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This is an increase from the 57 reported Tuesday. The newly confirmed cases are all among passengers of the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The current total breaks down to 42 passengers who were aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship, three people repatriated from China and 14 US cases.    

These are the states with confirmed cases:

The US has more masks in the national stockpile than the 30 million Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar described yesterday, he told members of the House Appropriations Committee today.

Azar gave the 30 million number when talking to the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday.

Today he clarified it like this:

Azar did not go into detail about what an expired mask means, or whether it can still be used. NIOSH refers to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Azar explained that N95 masks are “mostly for health care workers.” 

When asked if the public should access N95 masks, Azar said, "No no, we do not recommend that. We do not recommend that, no,” adding the best defense is basic public health hygiene — washing hands for an extended period of time, not touching your face and coughing into your elbow.

Still, he said the stockpile is not enough. “What we have talked about is approximately 300 million additional N95 masks from the emergency supplemental," Azar said.