Coronavirus catch-up: Stocks plunge, restaurants and schools close…

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The news surrounding the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is coming at a breathtaking pace. It’s hard to keep up, even if you’re obsessively watching the news.

Between a stock market plunge, rapid fire announcements, and the rumors that inevitably arise in a situation like this, it’s hard to keep a handle on what’s happening. The White House will offer an official update at 3:30 p.m. ET today, which will certainly have some sort of impact on Wall Street. In the meantime, here’s the latest on the pandemic and its impact on both businesses and nations.

Trial of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine starts Monday, government official says

The first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus will receive an experimental dose on Monday, according to a government official.

The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle.

Stocks continue sinking after halt in trading triggered by 10% plunge

U.S. Stocks plunged as investors fled risk assets amid the mounting economic toll of the coronavirus outbreak. Treasuries surged despite dramatic moves from the Federal Reserve and other central banks.

The S&P 500 fell 10% as of 9:46 a.m. In New York, bringing into play the circuit breaker cautionary measure that would pause trading for 15 minutes.

New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut take coronavirus precautions, shut down restaurants

Governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, on a conference call Monday, announced they would be ordering the closing of restaurants, bars, movie theaters, gyms, and casinos as of 8 p.m. ET.

How A.I. Is aiding the coronavirus fight

On the last day of 2019, an artificial intelligence warning system run by Toronto startup BlueDot flagged a news report from China about a mysterious pneumonia strain in the city of Wuhan. The system, which sifts through 100,000 articles and online posts daily in 65 languages, alerted BlueDot’s human employees, who immediately saw parallels to the deadly SARS outbreak in 2003.

After switching to a system based on data from billions of airline passenger itineraries, BlueDot was able to determine almost instantaneously which cities worldwide were most at risk if the mystery illness spread. The company quickly sent out warnings to health authorities and other clients about what would come to be called the coronavirus outbreak, which has so far infected almost 100,000 people and killed more than 3,000 as of early March.

How the coronavirus could upend America’s business relationships to China

From the moment it erupted in Wuhan, China, the COVID-19 virus has proved particularly lethal to patients with the prior, chronic illnesses often described as “underlying health conditions.” Now the contagion is having a similarly grim effect on the U.S.-China economic relationship—where accumulated mistrust and resentment have created unhealthy conditions of a different kind.

As the virus shakes the world’s business community, sending global stocks into or close to bear-market territory, it’s easy to forget that many of the first economic warning signs came from U.S. Companies with significant China exposure.

Airlines slash flights by up to 90% as coronavirus destroys demand

The airline downturn reached new levels as carriers from American Airlines Group Inc. To British Airways parent IAG SA slashed schedules and braced for a drought that could last for months.

American will pare long-haul international flights by 75%—the biggest reductions to date by a U.S.-based carrier—because of the collapse in travel demand and government restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus.

China’s coronavirus economic slump was even worse than feared

China suffered an even deeper slump than analysts feared at the start of the year as the coronavirus shuttered factories, shops and restaurants across the nation, underscoring the fallout now facing the global economy as the virus spreads around the world.

Industrial output plunged 13.5% in January and February from a year earlier, retail sales fell 20.5%, and fixed-asset investment dropped 24.5%. The unemployment rate jumped to a record 6.2% in February, when the outbreak worsened and much of the economy was shutdown.

Hong Kong will start charging quarantined travelers rent to stop coronavirus freeloading

As it continues to battle the global coronavirus outbreak, Hong Kong, the world’s most expensive property market, is going to start charging people quarantined in government housing after it found some were abusing the system.