Coronavirus live updates: Princess suspends cruises, Congress shuts down Capitol to public

This is CNBC’s live blog covering all the latest news on the coronavirus outbreak. All times below are in Eastern time. This blog will be updated throughout the day as the news breaks. 

• Global cases: More than 127,749, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
• Global deaths: At least 4,717, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
• US cases: At least 1,323, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
• US deaths: At least 38, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

President Donald Trump markets will be “just fine” as stocks sold off in yet another dramatic session fueled by worries over the coronavirus pandemic and the administration’s response to it.

While Trump, who was meeting with Irish leader Leo Varadkar, attempted to reassure the country that markets would recover from the impact of the virus, lawmakers on Capitol Hill signaled that a partisan fight was coming over a new emergency aid package. The Democrats’ latest bill, unveiled to the public Wednesday night, is “unworkable” in its current form, said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. —Calia, Breuninger

American Airlines said it was capping fares on several U.S.-bound routes from Europe as travelers race to get home due to President Donald Trump’s new travel ban aimed at combating the spread of the coronavirus.

Other airlines are likely to follow suit, based on similar actions in previous crises.

“We are placing caps on our fares for all cabins on flights from Europe to the U.S. that are affected by the government-imposed travel restrictions,” said American Airlines spokesman Ross Feinstein. The spike in demand has limited the number of seats available, however. —Josephs

Goldman Sachs said that a gym worker employed by a vendor at its New Jersey office is suspected to have caught the coronavirus.

The bank said that the worker, an employee of a company called Optum, fell ill on Saturday, March 7, and has been quarantined since then, Goldman said in a staff email sent Wednesday.

Goldman said it is shuttering the gym at its Jersey City office “until further notice.” —Son

Target will offer “quarantine pay” and “confirmed illness pay” to employees who become sick with the coronavirus or have to be isolated because of exposure to it.

The Minneapolis-based national retailer said it will provide 14 days of pay to workers who are placed under mandatory quarantine and up to 14 days of pay to those who test positive for COVID-19.

Target will waive its absenteeism policy at its offices and its more than 1,800 stores because of employees who may have to stay home with potential symptoms or may be affected by school or day-care closures. With the announcement, Target joins a growing number of retailers that are changing their policies or adding special benefits for workers. —Repko

The U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee is continuing its hearing on the country’s preparedness and response to the coronavirus outbreak that has swept across the nation.

Speakers include NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci, Terry Rauch, and CDC Director Robert Redfield.

The hearing first began on Wednesday before it was cut short when President Donald Trump summoned the officials to an emergency meeting at the White House. –Higgins-Dunn

Shares of Uber fell to fresh lows as investors continued to grapple with the rapid spread of COVID-19.

The stock dropped 12.35% to $23, falling below its previous intraday low of $25.58 on Nov. 6. The intraday low came amid a broader market sell-off after a speech from President Donald Trump failed to ease concerns over a possible economic slowdown.

Uber warned last week in an annual financial filing that “a pandemic or an outbreak of disease or similar public health concern, such as the recent coronavirus outbreak, or fear of such an event” could post a material risk to its business. —Bursztynsky

Congress will bar public access to the U.S. Capitol for the rest of the month, and the White House will temporarily cancel tours as officials try to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

Capitol tours will stop, while access to the building along with House and Senate office facilities will be limited to members, staff, press and business visitors starting Thursday at 5 p.m. ET, the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms Paul Irving and Michael Stenger said in a statement.

White House spokesman Judd Deere told NBC News the administration will stop tours of the president’s residence “until further notice.” —Pramuk

The coronavirus outbreak spurring the National Basketball Association to suspend the pro basketball season indefinitely could mean bad news on top of already bad news for sporting goods companies like Nike.

“COVID-19 is impacting Nike’s business inside and outside of China more than we initially anticipated,” Susquhanna analyst Sam Poser said in a note to clients Thursday morning. “On top of which, the cancellation of the NBA season until further notice, announced last night, does little to assuage near term nerves.” Susquehanna lowered its price target on Nike shares to $100 from $115.

The stock was recently falling almost 12%, amid a broader market selloff. Shares were hovering around $73.90. Nike’s stock is down about 1.7% over the past 12 months.

Under Armour, meantime, in February said it anticipated the outbreak in China to lower sales by roughly $50 million to $60 million during its fiscal first quarter. That was, notably, before the virus started to hit Europe and North America much harder.

Under Armour shares were down about 10% Thursday morning, hovering around $10.25. It has a market cap of $4.7 billion, compared with Nike’s $117.7 billion. —Thomas

Shopify is offering workers a $1,000 stipend to purchase any necessary office supplies and ease the transition to remote work. The announcement came as Shopify told its employees to work from home starting March 16, in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Several tech companies including Twitter, Google, and Amazon have told employees to work remotely this month.

Shopify, which makes online tools for companies to sell products online, employs 5,000 people worldwide, with the majority of its employees based in Canada. —Palmer

Amid all the fears, quarantines and stockpiling of food, it has been easy to ignore the fact that more than 60,000 people have recovered from the coronavirus spreading around the globe.

The disease can cause varying degrees of illness and is especially troublesome for older adults and people with existing health problems, who are at risk of severe effects, including pneumonia. But for most of those affected, coronavirus creates only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, with the vast majority recovering from the virus.

According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe ailments may take three to six weeks to rebound. In mainland China, where the virus first exploded, more than 80,000 people have been diagnosed, but more than 58,000 already have recovered.

Because the difference in impact can be so great, global health authorities have the difficult task of alerting the public to the virus’ dangers without creating panic. —Associated Press

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson warned customers that some cafes may offer limited seating or only receive orders via mobile or drive-thru due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Locations in the U.S. and Canada are preparing to modify operations if needed.

“This means that as we navigate this dynamic situation community-by-community and store-by-store, we may adapt the store experience by limiting seating to improve social distancing, enable mobile order-only scenarios for pickup via the Starbucks app or delivery via Uber Eats, or in some cases only the Drive Thru will be open,” Johnson wrote in a letter to customers on Thursday.

Johnson said that the company will close a store temporarily as a last resort. Starbucks closed a downtown Seattle location on March 5 after one of its baristas was diagnosed with the virus. The cafe reopened Monday morning. Thirteen additional employees are self-quarantined. —Lucas

CNBC’s Jim Cramer blasted the U.S. government’s response to the coronavirus, arguing “this is the time for radical action.”

“They know nothing. They know nothing. We know more than they do, and that’s not acceptable either,” Cramer said, hearkening back to his famous 2007 rant about the Federal Reserve before the financial crisis.

“I want the federal government to know more than me. I knew more than they did in 2007, and I know more than they do now and it is disappointing,” he said on “Squawk on the Street.” —Stankiewicz

House Republicans made clear that they won’t support the new emergency coronavirus aid bill unveiled by Democrats last night — at least not in its current form.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are scrambling to take action to combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus, which the World Health Organization on Wednesday declared a pandemic.

But they have hang-ups with the text of the Democrats’ bill because it omits several of the measures President Donald Trump had called on Congress to enact. —Breuninger

New York City has closed two Bronx schools for 24 hours due to a “self-confirmed” case of COVID-19 in a student, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. The two schools are the Laboratory School of Finance and Technology and South Bronx Preparatory. The Department of Education will disinfect the buildings.

“We don’t make this decision lightly, and we know the disruption and anxiety this means for students, faculty and parents,” de Blasio said in a statement. “We are taking every precaution to keep people safe, and we will keep everyone informed as we learn more through the day.” —Feuer 

JPMorgan Chase on Thursday told managers to implement a plan to have employees based in offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Jersey City to start working from home in shifts beginning on Friday.

“We are asking our managers to arrange for no fewer than 25% and no greater than 50% of their team members who can effectively work from home, to begin doing so by the end of this week,” according to a memo obtained by CNBC, which was sent to staff Thursday morning. —Son

U.S. stocks fell sharply once again on Thursday after an address from President Donald Trump failed to quell concerns over the possible economic slowdown from the coronavirus.

Before the open, futures contracts tied to the major indexes fell to their so-called limit down thresholds, sliding 5%. These limit down levels act as a floor for selling until regular trading begins. During the regular session, the S&P 500 must drop by 7% before triggering the New York Stock Exchange’s circuit breaker, which halts trading temporarily. —Imbert

Carnival’s Princess Cruises announced Thursday it is suspending all operations for two months due to concerns over the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic.

The announcement impacts the cruise line’s fleet of 18 ships and will affect voyages from March 12 to May 10.

Princess Cruises President Jan Swartz said the company is taking the “bold action” to reassure stakeholders of its commitment to the well-being of its passengers. —Feuer 

Spain’s death toll from the outbreak rose to 84 on Thursday from 47 on Wednesday, the health ministry said. The ministry reported the number of cases rose to 2,968 up from 2,140 on Wednesday. —Reuters 

Viking has suspended its river and ocean cruises until May 1. Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen noted in a letter to booked guests that operating as a travel company amid the COVID-19 outbreak “involves significant risks of quarantines or medical detentions.”

“As a private company with strong finances, we do not have to worry about quarterly profit expectations — and that flexibility allows us the ability to do what is best for our guests and our employees, as we have always done,” he said. 

Passengers with reservations for cruises set to embark Thursday through April 30 will receive a full refund or a voucher for a future booking at 125% the paid amount. —Salinas 

All soccer matches in Spain’s top division, La Liga, have been suspended for two weeks to curb the spread of COVID-19, the league’s organizing body said. The league’s statement said the decision came after Real Madrid put its team in quarantine, and that it had notified the clubs, the Spanish soccer federation and the national sports ministry of the postponements. —Reuters

The head of the World Health Organization urged all countries on Thursday to “double down” in the fight, a day after declaring the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. “Describing this as a pandemic does not mean that countries should give up,” WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told diplomats in Geneva. “The idea that countries should shift from containment to mitigation is wrong and dangerous.” He said that, while maintaining a containment strategy, all countries must “strike a fine balance between protecting health, preventing economic and social disruption, and respecting human rights,” according to remarks made available by the agency. —Reuters

The European Union condemned President Donald Trump’s decision to impose a travel ban on 26 EU nations. “The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action,” European Council and European Commission Presidents Charles Michel and Ursula von der Leyen said Thursday morning.

“The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation,” the two top-ranking EU officials said, adding that “the European Union is taking strong action to limit the spread of the virus.” rump’s travel ban does not apply to legal permanent residents of the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security, and in most cases, it does not apply to immediate family members of U.S. citizens. —Amaro

The U.K.’s chief medical officers said doctors in the country may need to “depart significantly from established procedures to handle the outbreak.” This might be needed “in order to care for patients in the highly challenging but time-bound circumstances of the peak of an epidemic,” the chief medical officers of the U.K.’s individual nations said in a joint letter to doctors, Reuters reported. —Ellyatt

Iran reported 75 new deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to Reuters. That brings the death toll to 429. “We have identified 1,075 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, meaning that there are 10,075 infected people in the country. The death toll is 429,” Health Ministry spokesman Kianush Jahanpur told state television. —Ellyatt

The U.S. travel ban for most people planning to enter the country from 26 European countries begins Friday. The ban, announced Wednesday night by President Donald Trump, affects the so-called Schengen Area, where there are no passport checks between internal borders.

Most people who have been in these countries in the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival in the United States will not be allowed into the country. This two-week limit means those affected can’t get around the rules by changing flights in a non-European airport.

Trump’s travel ban does not apply to legal permanent residents of the U.S., according to the Department of Homeland Security, and in most cases, it does not apply to immediate family members of U.S. citizens. —Amaro

South Africa reported the first case of local transmission of the coronavirus on Thursday, Reuters reported. There are concerns that African health systems could be overwhelmed if local transmission accelerates, the news agency added. South Africa’s Health Ministry said a 32-year-old man contracted the virus after contact with a Chinese businessman. The country has not reported any deaths from coronavirus. —Ellyatt

European markets plunged Thursday morning as investors reacted to President Donald Trump’s decision to impose restrictions on travel to the U.S. from many countries in Europe. The pan-European Stoxx 600 dropped 6% in early trade, with travel and leisure stocks plummeting 9.3% following Trump’s announcement of a ban on European travel. —Smith

Read CNBC’s coverage from CNBC’s Asia-Pacific and Europe teams overnight here: Ireland to shut schools, universities until March 29 due to virus

Reuters and CNBC’s Sara Salinas, Saheli Roy Choudhury, Yen Nee Lee, Silvia Amaro,
Kevin Breuninger, Fred Imbert, Kevin Stankiewicz, Amelia Lucas, Annie Palmer, Lauren Thomas, Jacob Pramuk, Jessica Bursztynsky, Noah Higgins-Dunn, Melissa Repko, Leslie Josephs, Mike Calia, and Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.