Pedestrians wear face masks as they walk outside the New Orient Landmark hotel in Macau on January 22, 2020.
ANTHONY WALLACE | AFP via Getty Images
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All times below are in Beijing time.
7:57 am: Macao’s casino revenue plunges nearly 88%
Macao’s gaming revenue plunged 87.8% in February as compared with a year ago, according to Reuters. Casinos in the Chinese territory were shut for two weeks as authorities scrambled to contain the virus outbreak.
Macao is heavily dependent on casinos, earning more than 80% of its revenue from gaming, but visits from tourists have practically dried up, according to the report. — Weizhen Tan
7:51 am: Asia markets set to continue falling
5:26 pm: France’s Louvre Museum closed
The spreading coronavirus epidemic shut down France’s Louvre Museum on Sunday, with workers who guard its famous trove of artworks fearful of being contaminated by the museum’s flow of tourists from around the world.
Almost three-quarters of the Louvre’s 9.6 million visitors last year came from abroad. The world’s most popular museum welcomes tens of thousands of fans daily in Paris.
“We are very worried because we have visitors from everywhere,” said Andre Sacristin, a Louvre employee and union representative.
“The risk is very, very, very great,” he said in a phone interview. While there are no known virus infections among the museum’s 2,300 workers, “it’s only a question of time,” he said.
A short statement from the Louvre said a staff meeting about virus prevention efforts stopped the museum from opening as scheduled Sunday morning. — Associated Press
2:43 pm: United postpones new pilot class and warns of additional flight cuts
United Airlines is postponing start dates for some new pilots this month and warned about further flight reductions, the carrier confirmed Sunday.
A 23-person class of pilots that was supposed to start training this week has been postponed. CNBC had reported the schedule change earlier on Sunday. The delay comes as the new coronavirus, or COVID-19, spreads, prompting United and its competitors to scale back some international routes. Pilot training can take several months before aviators start flying for the airline.
The coronavirus is a new challenge for airlines that have been dealing with slower-than-expected growth because of the nearly yearlong grounding of the Boeing 737 Max after two fatal crashes. — Josephs
11:22 am: US investigating whistleblower complaint that staff was inadequately protected from virus, health secretary says
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is looking into a whistleblower’s complaint that staff had inadequate protection from the coronavirus, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said.
“We are looking into these allegations. I am personally involved in doing so,” Azar told CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
A whistleblower has said workers from HSS were sent, without proper training and gear, to retrieve the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus.
Those workers were deployed in California, the person said. Azar said Sunday: “There was no spreading of the disease from this.” — Thomas
Read CNBC’s coverage from the U.S. overnight: Two more coronavirus cases confirmed in Seattle, Houston energy conference canceled
— CNBC’s Eustance Huang, Leslie Josephs and Lauren Thomas contributed to this report.