March 6 coronavirus news

The Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic has announced new measures for people returning from Italy, ordering every Czech resident who came back from the country starting tomorrow to contact their doctor and self-quarantine for 14 days. 

The ministry said that the order has been issued due to the significant spread of the novel coronavirus in Italy and the fact that a majority of people who have tested positive for the virus in the Czech Republic have been infected during their stay in Italy. 

“According to our information, there are currently 16,500 Czech citizens in Italy,” the ministry said in a statement. 

The ministry has ordered family doctors to quarantine anyone coming back from Italy for 14 days. The statement added that anyone breaching a quarantine can be fined up to 3 million Czech crowns — about $130,000.

It said that people in quarantine are entitled to receive sick pay and urged employers to allow people who are quarantined but not sick to work remotely.

President Trump said today that he actually may still go to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after the trip was canceled.

Speaking at a bill signing for coronavirus spending, Trump said the visit was canceled because of a potential case of coronavirus.

“We may go — they thought there was a problem with CDC with somebody who had the virus,” he said, adding that the person in question has been tested and it came back negative.

“I may be going,” he added. 

President Trump signed the coronavirus spending bill Friday morning.

“We’re signing the 8.3 billion. I asked for 2.5 and I got 8.3, and I’ll take it,“ Trump said, signing the bill in the Diplomatic Reception Room. “We’re doing well, but it’s an unforeseen problem.”

WATCH: President Trump signs coronavirus spending bill

The Dow opened 800 points lower as coronavirus fear continues to impact Wall Street. The S&P 500 was down 3% and the Nasdaq dropped 3%.

Investors poured money into safe-haven assets: US Treasury bond buying skyrocketed, and the 10-year yield fell below 0.7% to a new record low. Gold is up more than 1% and pushing $1,700 an ounce. 

The US Labor Department said Friday that the US economy added 273,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate fell to a historically low 3.5%.

Coronavirus fears hadn't yet fully taken hold when the jobs survey was completed in mid-February.

The Ultra Music Festival and the Calle Ocho Festival have been postponed due to fears and concerns about the coronavirus, according to officials from the City of Miami. 

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the cancelations should not cause “panic” as the decision was made as a “precaution” and following CDC guidelines for large gatherings.

Ultra is a 3-day electronic dance music festival that was founded in 1999 and takes place in the heart of downtown Miami. This year 210 performing artists were expected to take the stage and organizers were expecting fans from 105 countries.

The Calle Ocho Music Festival is an event that spans 20 blocks and 10 stages of music and entertainment in Little Havana.

According to Suarez, the economic impact of these cancellations is unclear.

Slack, the workplace chat app, is encouraging employees to work remotely today after learning that one of its San Francisco-based employees could potentially have been exposed to coronavirus.

According to a statement from Slack’s SVP of People, Robby Kwok, the employee was notified by the CDC they had been in an area with potential exposure while traveling overseas.

“This employee has not been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 and has not reported any symptoms,” said Kwok, who noted that because the employee was the office after returning from the trip, the company is closing both of its San Francisco offices this afternoon and deep cleaning this weekend.

“The health and safety of our employees is our number one priority. Again, we are taking these actions out of an abundance of caution,” added Kwok.

A scheduled meeting of EU Ambassadors did not take place Friday morning because a second member of Council staff became infected by COVID-19, an EU official confirmed to CNN. The staff member had been in close contact with "at least" one of the EU Ambassadors.

The regular Friday meeting was “postponed” to give officials time to identify who the infected person had been in contact with, according to the official.

As a precaution, parts of the European Council where the staff member had been are now being sealed off. At the moment all other meetings are going ahead.

Two British Airways staff have tested positive for coronavirus, the airline's press office told CNN.

The staff members "have been isolated and are recovering at home," the airline said.

There are now more than 100,000 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, according to a count from Johns Hopkins University in the US.

The university's dashboard reported a total of 100,329 cases across the world this morning.

Remember: This number is slightly different than the latest count from World Health Organization, which is reporting 98,202 cases around the world. Johns Hopkins and WHO report tallies at different times of the day, so the counts often differ.

Egypt has detected 12 new coronavirus cases on “a Nile cruise ship coming from Aswan to Luxor,” according to a joint statement by the health ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO), Egypt state-run Ahram Online reported.

Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said the detection came after information from the WHO that a Taiwanese-American tourist, who was on board the cruise, had tested positive after returning home, Ahram Online added.

The 12 cases -- all Egyptian workers on the ship -- tested positive after a “test was carried out following the conclusion of the 14-day incubation period.”

All new cases have been referred to an isolation hospital, and others believed to be in contact with them placed in quarantine for 14 days, to follow up on their health conditions.

The total number of cases recorded in Egypt now is 15.