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Since the first case of coronavirus was reported on December 31, 2019, it has gone on to take lives of over 5,400 victims as well as afflicting tens of thousands of others, including high profile people around the globe
Iranian Deputy Health Minister, Iraj Harirchi
Harirchi confirmed he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus on February 25, days after appearing unwell at a press conference on the outbreak. On March 3, the BBC reported that five Iranian members of parliament had also tested positive for coronavirus.
Iranian Vice President, Eshaq Jahangiri
Iran’s first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, has been infected with the novel coronavirus. Jahangiri is the most senior official to contract the virus, which has taken the lives of 354 people and infected 9,000 in Iran since its outbreak in February. The 63-year-old is one of 24 Iranian officials and lawmakers to be infected with the virus, according to Fars news agency.
Former parliamentarian, Jahangiri, is the most senior of a total of 12 vice presidents in the government of President Hassan Rouhani. It is not clear to what extent Rouhani himself has been exposed to infected officials such as Jahangiri.
Janet Broderick
Matthew Broderick’s sister, Rev. Janet Broderick, 64, informed her congregation at All Saints Episcopal Church in Beverly Hills Wednesday and thanked them for their prayers.
Canadian First Lady Sophie Grégoire Trudeau
Sophie Trudeau tested positive for the coronavirus after attending a large event in London. Her husband, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, will self-isolate as a precaution although he has not exhibited symptoms.
Her husband, Justin Trudeau has gone into self isolation while waiting to see if he has contracted the disease.
UK Health Minister, Nadine Dorries
Dorries announced she had tested positive for the coronavirus a few days after attending an event with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, raising concerns about Johnson’s exposure. She confirmed the news on Tuesday. The prime minister’s office has said he will not take a test for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, because he was not in close proximity to Dorries and was not exhibiting symptoms.
Francis Suarez, Miami Mayor
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, four days after the mayor attended a Miami event with a Brazilian government official who later tested positive for the virus
Fabio Wajngarten, Public Official In Brazil
Communications Director Fabio Wajngarten tested positive for the coronavirus, marking the first time that someone known to have the virus was in close proximity to US President Donald.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton
Mr Peter Dutton, 49, confirmed that he had tested positive after after a trip to the United States. On that trip, he posed alongside Ivanka Trump and Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, days before he tested positive. He has been hospitalized, per Australian protocol.
Celebrities affected
Tom Hanks And Rita Wilson
The actor and actress, both 63, were in Australia when their tests came back positive with the virus. Their sons Chet, 29, and Colin, 42, also reassured fans that the two didn’t seem to have severe symptoms. True to form, Hanks made light of the scary situation by quoting his infamous “A League of Their Own” character.
“We have Covid-19 and are in isolation so we do not spread it to anyone else,” he wrote on Instagram. “There are those for whom it could lead to a very serious illness. We are taking it one-day-at-a-time. There are things we can all do to get through this by following the advice of experts and taking care of ourselves and each other, no? Remember, despite all the current events, there is no crying in baseball.
People in Sports
Daniele Rugani
The 25-year-old Juventus player was the first Serie A diagnosis on His teammate, Cristiano Ronaldo, is in quarantine but has not tested positive for the virus. Italian soccer club Juventus announced that defender Daniele Rugani had tested positive on March 11. Rugani, who is also an Italy international, is the first player in Italy’s top soccer division to test positive but Juventus stressed that the 25-year-old has no symptoms.
Juventus’ match against Lyon was cancelled by UEFA after the news.
Apart from Rugani, Sampdoria striker Manolo Gabbiadini has also caught the virus.
Olympiacos Owner, Evangelos Marinakis
Marinakis confirmed he had contracted coronavirus less than two weeks after the Greek side knocked Arsenal out of the Europa League.
The Greek businessman, also owner of Championship promotion-chasers Nottingham Forest, revealedIn a post on Instagram, written in Greek, he said: “The recent virus has visited me and I felt obliged to let the public know.”
Basketball Player Rudy Gobert
Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, 27, tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the NBA to take the extraordinary step of suspending its season.
The 27-year-old NBA star from the Utah Jazz was roundly criticized for carelessly touching microphones during a press conference before his diagnosis. Before leaving a media session at shootaround in Salt Lake City on Monday in advance of a game against Detroit, Gobert touched all the tape recorders that were placed before him on a table, devices that reporters who cover the Jazz were using
Basketball Player Donovan Mitchell
The 23-year-old Utah Jazz teammate of Gobert tested positive Thursday.
Mitchell’s positive test was not known until early Thursday, the first full day of the NBA’s hiatus. Jazz players, staff and some beat writers covering the team were tested Wednesday night in Oklahoma City, where Utah was to play the Thunder in a game that was called off moments before tipoff once word about Gobert’s positive test was received.
Arsenal coachMikel Arteta
The 37-year-old Arsenal manager was the first Premier League positive diagnosis, forcing the club to close its training complex and put the entire first-team in self isolation.
The club issued a statement quoting Arteta as saying: “This is really disappointing but I took the test after feeling poorly. I will be at work as soon as I’m allowed.”
Arsenal’s game at Manchester City was called off on Wednesday after players came into contact with a rival team owner who announced Tuesday that he had contracted COVID-19.
Chelsea player Callum Hudson-Odoi
The 19-year-old Premier League winger for Chelsea announced the diagnosis on Friday. Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi tested positive.
“I had the virus for the last couple of days, which I’ve recovered from,” Hudson-Odoi said in a video posted on social media. “I’m following the health guidelines and self-isolating myself from everybody for the week. I hope to see everybody soon and hopefully be back on the pitch very soon. Take care.”
UEFA said it was stopping next week’s games in all competitions, including the two remaining Champions League matches which had not been already called offBayern Munich vs. Chelsea and Barcelona vs. Napoli, both scheduled for Wednesday.
World’s Events put on hold
Dozens of other organizations, gatherings and cultural events have changed their plans in the last few weeks, as the World Health Organization formally declared the coronavirus a pandemic and the number of people who have been sickened or died has mounted. Here’s a brief rundown of some of the larger events around the world that have been modified or cancelled.
Rome Catholic Churches ordered closed
Rome’s Catholic churches were ordered closed on Thursday because of the coronavirus pandemic, in a move believed to be unprecedented in modern times.
The decree by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, Pope Francis’ vicar for the Rome archdiocese, will remain in effect until at least April 3. There are more than 900 parochial and historic churches in the Italian capital.
Previously, only Masses had been cancelled because of the outbreak. The decree also dispenses Catholics in the archdiocese from their obligation to attend Mass on Sunday’s and on what are known as Holy Days of Obligation.
The decree allows a relatively smaller number of oratories in convents and monasteries to remain open.
The move follows a decision by the Italian government on Wednesday night to close virtually every commercial activity in Italy apart from pharmacies, food shops and other stores selling essential goods.
St. Peter’s Basilica, which is on Vatican territory, has already been closed and the pope has cancelled his two weekly appearances in public. He held his most recent Sunday blessing and general audience from inside the Vatican and both have been streamed on the internet.
Political Gatherings
In the first major cancellations of the presidential race because of concerns about the coronavirus, Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. called off campaign events in Cleveland on Tuesday. Ohio has three confirmed cases of the virus, and Gov. Mike DeWine has called for limiting public gatherings.
Conferences and Education
Many businesses and professional organizations postponed or cancelled conferences, including the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, which had organized a global health conference scheduled to take place in Orlando, Fla. President Trump had been among the scheduled speakers.
Google cancelled its I/O developer event near Palo Alto, California, which was scheduled for May. The company usually announces new products and developments at the event.
E3, one of the video game industry’s biggest conventions that was scheduled for June in Los Angeles, was canceled. Organizers of the convention, where developers showcase their latest creations, said that the cancellation was “the best way to proceed during such an unprecedented global situation.”
The New York International Auto Show that was scheduled for April has been postponed. The show is now scheduled to run Aug. 28 to Sept. 6.
“We are taking this extraordinary step to help protect our attendees, exhibitors and all participants from the coronavirus,” said Mark Schienberg, president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, which owns the show.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York was closed Wednesday after a student tested positive for coronavirus.
John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York was closed Wednesday after a student tested positive for coronavirus.
Schools in Italy, Iran, China, South Korea, Japan and elsewhere have been closed because of the outbreak. This week, many American educational institutions announced they would also cancel classes. In one of the most far-reaching decisions, Harvard ordered all undergraduate students to move out of their dormitories by March 15 and said it would conduct all classes online through the spring semester.
Sports
Many international sporting events have been postponed, including English premier league, Six Nations and Women’s Six Nations rugby matches that had been scheduled for February and March, and the Hong Kong and Singapore Sevens. The Boston Marathon and the Masters golf tournament, two of America’s oldest sporting events, were postponed because of the virus.
The N.B.A. also suspended its season, shortly after a March 11 game between the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder was halted just before tip-off. A player for the Jazz tested positive for the coronavirus.
Major League Soccer alsosuspended its season for at least 30 days, beginning March 12, less than two weeks after matches began on Feb. 29. The season is scheduled to run through Oct. 4. The National Hockey League also said it would pause its season. Major League Baseball pushed back its season opening by at least two weeks and suspended spring training games.
Italy and Iran which are contending with major outbreaks, similarlycancelled sporting events, and Greece barred spectators for a two-week period. Professional soccer games in Spain and Portugal will also take place in empty stadiums for at least two weeks. A day earlier, FIFA said it would postpone the Asian qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Others have taken place with major changes, like the Tokyo Marathon, which was restricted to elite runners. Formula One has said that its upcoming Grand Prix in Bahrain will be closed to spectators, while the Chinese Grand Prix, which had been scheduled for April, was postponed.
The biggest question in the sports world is the Tokyo Olympics, set to begin in July. Japan and the International Olympic Committee have said the Games will go on, but there have been discussions about a worst-case scenario: holding competitions without spectators.
Cultural Events
Widespread closings were announced throughout Europe this week. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy announced on Monday that public gatherings were banned and that people would be allowed to travel only for work or for emergencies. Even church services are prohibited.
Ireland’s government cancelled all St. Patrick’s Day parades, including Dublin’s. Boston, which has a robust Irish-American population, also cancelled its parade; Manhattan’s was postponed. Berlin closed state and private theaters, concert halls, opera houses, state-run museums, monuments and libraries. Austria banned indoor gatherings of more than 100 people.
In New York, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall cancelled performances through the end of the month.
Austin, Texas, cancelled the 34th annual South by Southwest festival after tech companies, including Apple, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok, withdrew their participation. The sprawling music, tech and film festival was to run from March 13 to 22, with events planned throughout bars and party spaces across the city, and at a convention centre. Festival organizers have said that they did not have insurance to cover cancellation by pandemics or communicable disease, and that they would be laying off a third of their full-time staff.
Also, the Tribeca Film Festival, which was scheduled to run from April 15-26, has been postponed. Organizers did not give a new date for the event.
In Washington, the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts cancelled all public events and performances through the end of March, effective Friday.
The Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Fla. — a complex of six separately ticketed parks that have a combined annual attendance of 93 million — will close on March 15 through the end of the month.
Disney has closed the resort before because of hurricane Matthew in 2016, Frances in 2004 and Floyd in 1999.
The Disneyland Paris Resort and the Disney Cruise Line, which operates four ships that can carry 13,400 people, will also close on March 15 through the end of the month.
For only the fourth time in its 65-year history, the Disneyland resort in Anaheim, Calif., will close down, beginning on Saturday and continuing through the end of the month.
One of the largest rodeos in the world, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, was shut down on Wednesday, a week into the event. The rodeo, which was to run through March 22, features bull and horse riding and an exhibition of cattle, pigs, llamas and other animals, among other activities. It regularly draws tens of thousands of people every day.
The Tucson Festival of Books, which was planned for March 14 and 15, was also cancelled. The book festival is one of the biggest in the country and usually draws over 100,000 people to Tucson, Ariz. The Los Angeles Times postponed its 25th annual Festival of Books, originally scheduled to take place next month on the University of Southern California campus, until October.
The organizers of the giant Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, which takes place in the picturesque desert of Southern California and is seen as a bellwether for the multibillion-dollar touring industry, have postponed the festival until October.
The festival will now take place in October. Tickets that were purchased for April will be honoured in October.
On Wednesday, ABC’s “The View” taped the daytime talk show without a studio audience. “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS will do the same starting Monday.
“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “Late Night with Seth Meyers” will suspend production next week, according to NBC. The earliest there could be a new episode of either show is on March 30, as both shows will be on hiatus the week of March 23.
Hollywood has been watching the spread of the virus closely, and expecting a major impact on box office sales. In one of the industry’s first significant responses, the producers of the latest movie in the James Bond franchise, “No Time to Die,” announced they would move its release from April to November. John Krasinski, the director of “A Quiet Place Part II,” said the movie’s release would be postponed. The latest film in the blockbuster “Fast & Furious” series, “F9: The Fast Saga,” was supposed to premiere on May 22, but will now be released in April 2021. (Leadership)



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