Coronavirus live updates: Trump suspends travel from 26 European countries to US

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

The European countries that are not part of the Schengen zone, and whose citizens are therefore exempt from Trump’s ban are: Albania, Andora, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Ireland, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Turkey, Ukraine, The United Kingdom and Vatican City.

Spanish cabinet to be tested after minister tests positive

Every member of the Spanish cabinet is being tested for the coronavirus after the country’s equality minister, Irene Montero, became the latest politician to test positive for the virus.

Her partner, the deputy prime minister and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias, is in precautionary quarantine, the government said in a statement.

The government also announced that the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, will be using videoconferencing for all his meetings and press conferences once today’s cabinet meeting is over.

News of Montero’s diagnosis comes days after Javier Ortega Smith, the general secretary of the far-right Vox party, was diagnosed with the virus. Vox also apologised for holding a 9,000-person rally in Madrid on Sunday as cases of the virus rose. Ana Pastor, the former speaker of the congress of deputies, tested positive for the virus on Wednesday.

Spain has now confirmed 2,277 cases of the virus, making it the second most affected country in Europe and the fifth in the world after China, South Korea, Iran and Italy. So far, 55 people have died from the virus in the country.

The chief medical officers from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern have instructed doctors to change the way they work to deal with “very abnormal emergency situation”.

In a letter they warned that the expected epidemic will be a “challenge” and exacerbate staff shortages in the NHS.

It says doctors will be required to temporarily work in “clinical areas outside their usual practice for the benefit of patients and the population as a whole”.

It adds: “Clinicians may need to depart, possibly significantly, from established procedures in order to care for patients in the highly challenging time-bound circumstances of the peak of an epidemic.”

Ireland’s caretaker taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, is due to meet Donald Trump in the Oval Office this morning, the first meeting with an EU leader since the president’s travel ban announcement.

Varadkar was in the US ahead of the ban, which does not include flights from Ireland as it is not one of the Schengen zone countries Trump has targeted.

Varadkar’s two-day visit is the shortest undertaken for an Irish premier in recent memory and he was forced to cancel some engagements yesterday to deal with the Coronavirus crisis at home.

The US has also curtailed the traditional Irish American festivities with this afternoon’s shamrock ceremony in the White House usually headed by the US president and taoiseach of the day cancelled.

It is understood that Varadkar’s breakfast meeting with the vice-president, Mike Pence, this morning is also going ahead. Earlier it was announced that New York’s St Patrick’s day parade has been cancelled.

UK paramedic tests positive

A paramedic with the East of England ambulance service has tested positive for coronavirus.

An NHS spokesman said:

The chief medical officer today confirmed a further case of Covid-19 who is a resident of Hertfordshire and a paramedic with the East of England ambulance service (EEAST).

There are well-established procedures that are being followed in a case such as this and the NHS and Public Health England are taking all necessary steps to manage the situation.

Hertfordshire is the worst hit council area in the UK with 18 confirmed cases.

Trump’s travel ban has prompted another plunge in the markets.

Wild trading in London has driven the FTSE 100 as low as 5,482 points, down over 6% today.

Every single company on the blue-chip index, and on the smaller FTSE 250 index, is down.

Cineworld has slumped 30% after it warned it could breach its banking covenants if cinemas are forced to close (see earlier post).

Wall Street is heading for another slump too – trading in futures contracts have been suspended ‘limit down’, after falling 5%.