February 25 coronavirus news

A 70-year-old man is the first person to test positive for coronavirus in Switzerland, the country’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) told CNN. 

The Swiss man from the canton of Ticino, a region which borders Italy, had been to Lombardy, Italy, in mid-February.

He has been hospitalized, where he's “under isolation and in good health so far," a FOPH spokesperson said.

Italy is the site of Europe's biggest coronavirus outbreak. The cases there are heavily concentrated in the region of Lombardy.

A woman has tested positive for coronavirus in Barcelona, according to Joan Guix, the secretary of Public Health in Catalonia.

The patient is a 36-year-old Italian national living in Barcelona, Guix said. The patient traveled to Bergamo and Milan, Italy, from Feb. 12 until Sunday. She is now in isolation in a hospital.

Previously, two people on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife tested positive for the virus forcing their hotel into a lockdown.

Eight more cases are being investigated.

An 11th person has died of coronavirus in Italy, the civil protection ministry said on Tuesday. 

The victim is a 76-year-old Treviso woman who was being treated in a hospital, Italian Civil Protection press officer Juri Pittaluga said.

Italy is the site of Europe's biggest coronavirus outbreak. The cases are heavily concentrated in the region of Lombardy.

Stocks have turned sharply negative as coronavirus fears continue to mount. The Dow has lost more than 700 points.

Yesterday, the Dow fell more than 1,000 points, recording its worst day in two years, as coronavirus fears led global markets to plummet.

The US and South Korea are expected to announce as soon as today that a critical joint military exercise has been scaled back because coronavirus is severely limiting the ability of both nation’s militaries to participate, according to three US officials.

What this could mean: This would be the first major impact of coronavirus on US military readiness according to the officials. Without the full exercise, the US could lose ground in being ready to conduct future operations in a coordinated and highly synchronized manner with the Republic of Korea against the north in a crisis one of the officials said.

The two sides are discussing the final details of the reduced effort.

The first exercise involved is a so-called command post exercise scheduled to begin in the next several days. These types of exercises simulate the essential ability of top commanders and their senior staffs on both sides practicing precisely how they would operate together in a crisis. In the Republic of Korea, this is vital training as both sides would operate jointly in any combat crisis against North Korea.

It is not yet clear if any field exercises will be affected.             

In Monday, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper only said the scale back was being considered but insisted it would not have a military impact. “I’m sure that we’ll remain fully ready to deal with any threats that we might face together,” Esper told reporters.

But US officials say when exercises are scaled back or cancelled — as they were in August 2018 — capabilities are particularly impacted because of the regularly scheduled high rate of changes in assignments for both nations forces. That can mean each year more than 50% of troops are replaced with newly assigned forces that may not have experience in commanding in Korea.

South Korea now has more than 970 cases of coronavirus.

Two more people in France have been diagnosed with coronavirus, according to Jérôme Salomon, general director of Health.

"We have two new cases tonight. Case No. 13 is the case of a young Chinese woman who returned from China on February 7 and was hospitalized in Paris. Case No. 14 is a French man returning from Lombardy; he's being hospitalized in Auvergne Rhône Alpes," Salomon said.

Stocks have turned sharply negative as coronavirus fears continue to mount. The Dow has lost more than 500 points today.

Yesterday, the Dow fell more than 1,000 points, recording its worst day in two years, as coronavirus fears led global markets to plummet.

The US has now confirmed 57 cases of coronavirus, US health officials said today.

This is an increase from the 53 reported yesterday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The newly confirmed cases are all passengers evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. 

In total, the cases include:

The 14 US cases include eight in California, one in Massachusetts, one in Washington state, one in Arizona, two in Illinois and one in Wisconsin. Among these cases, there  are two instances of person-to-person transmission: one in Illinois and one in California. 

The European Union will keep open borders despite the spread of coronavirus and pledged to take a “common position” in order to face the global challenge.

The ministers of health of Austria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Switzerland and San Marino met in Rome today. In a joint statement, they said that closing borders would be a “disproportionate and ineffective measure at this time.” 

Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza called it a “very positive” meeting.

Italy now has the highest number of coronavirus infections outside Asia, with more than 280 cases. Those cases are heavily concentrated in the region of Lombardy.