Associated Press
President Donald Trump listens during a meeting with banking industry executives about the coronavirus, at the White House, Wednesday, March 11, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
- President Donald Trump has canceled scheduled trips to Nevada and Colorado, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said in a statement to CNN.
- Trump planned on attending a fundraiser in Las Vegas and an event for the Republican Jewish Coalition, but the trip was canceled "out of an abundance of caution from the Coronavirus outbreak," Grisham said.
- The World Health Organization officially classified coronavirus, which leads to a disease called COVID-19, as a pandemic on Wednesday.
- In the US, at least 1,300 people in 41 states and Washington, D.C., have tested positive for the virus as of Wednesday, according to The New York Times, and at least 37 patients have died from it.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump canceled his upcoming trips to Nevada and Colorado as the US grapples with an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, CNN reported.
The president planned on attending a fundraiser in Las Vegas on Friday, and he was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a conference for the Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday.
But White House press secretary said in a statement to CNN that the trips have been canceled "out of an abundance of caution from the Coronavirus outbreak."
On Wednesday evening, Trump announced that the US will ban all travel from Europe except for the United Kingdom, with the exception of Americans who have been appropriately screened, for thirty days beginning on Friday at midnight.
Financial markets have also plunged as the virus continues to spread and more and more countries implement restrictions on travel and day-to-day work.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted by more than 1,800 points after the opening bell on Monday, and the S&P 500 tanked by seven percent, triggering a fail-safe that suspended all trading for 15 minutes.
The Dow fell another 1,465 points into a bear market on Wednesday after the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic, marking the end of the longest bull-market expansion in history.
The World Health Organization officially classified coronavirus, which leads to a disease called COVID-19, as a pandemic on Wednesday. More than 125,000 people have been infected across the globe and there have been more than 4,500 deaths.
In the US, at least 1,300 people in 41 states and Washington, D.C., have tested positive for the virus as of Wednesday, according to The New York Times, and at least 37 patients have died from it.
The veteran actor Tom Hanks announced in a statement Wednesday evening that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, have tested positive for the virus.
"Hello, folks. Rita and I are down here in Australia," Hanks said in a statement to Deadline. "We felt a bit tired, like we had colds, and some body aches. Rita had some chills that came and went. Slight fevers too."
Hanks and his wife were in The Gold Coast, Australia, for the pre-production of Baz Luhrmann's untitled Elvis Presley film, in which Hanks stars as Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker, according to the Deadline report.
In a statement posted to Twitter, the actor said he and his wife were tested for the coronavirus after experiencing symptoms and came up positive.
"We Hanks' will be tested observed, and isolated for as long as public health and safety requires," Hanks added. "Not much more to it than a one-day-at-a-time approach, no? We'll keep the world posted and updated. Take care of yourselves!"
The National Basketball Association (NBA) also suspended its season on Wednesday after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus.
The NBA made the decision after a game between the Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder was called off, though the sequence of events was unclear. ESPN's Royce Young reported that prior to tip-off, a team doctor sprinted out onto the court to speak to team officials.