Lululemon and Under Armour have joined Nike in saying they will close stores in the United States and other markets, joining a growing list of major retailers moving to help limit the spread of the coronavirus.
Under Armour was the subject of a New York Times piece in January this year titled How Under Armour Lost Its Edge, in which the author wrote the brand “has faltered, hurt by slumping sales and unflattering revelations about its corporate culture.”
The coronavirus pandemic will almost certainly add to its woes.
Nike on Sunday said it will close stores in Canada, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand from March 16 to 27. It will continue normal operations at stores in South Korea, Japan, most of China and in many other countries.
Under Armour said it would shutter all North America stores from Monday for about two weeks. Lululemon said it would close its stores in North America and Europe for a similar period.
Each said their online stores would continue to be open.
Gap Inc is temporarily reducing store hours for all of its locations in the United States and Canada, and closing over 100 stores
Apparel retailer Urban Outfitters Inc, which owns brands including Anthropologie and Free People, said on Saturday it would close its stores worldwide until at least March 28.
A few images now from Brescia, in northern Italy, where emergency structures were set up to deal with patients in the coronavirus pandemic.
Italy has had the second-highest number of confirmed cases so far, at 24,747.
There have been 1,809 deaths and 2,335 recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University figures.
Australian shares plunge nearly 10%
The Sydney stock market has closed almost 10% down on another disastrous day of trading. It dropped 9.7% to 5,002 points.
The massive losses came despite an announcement by the Reserve Bank that it will begin buying bonds in a quantitative easing operation to prop up the country’s cratering economy.
David Taylor
(@DaveTaylorNews)JUST IN: The Australian share market has plunged after another volatile day. The ASX 200 index dropped 9.7% to 5,002 points – its worst day since at least the global financial crisis via @abcnews #coronavirus #COVIDー19 #ausbiz #auspol #markets #ASX
Who won the Biden-Sanders debate? Our panelists weigh in
Jessa Crispin: “For a while, I felt like I was watching a Beckett play, with two old men on stage talking about totally different realities, talking past one another as if they did not even exist within the same space and time. Here was Bernie Sanders, acknowledging how our flawed and deteriorated health system could enable coronavirus to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans. And here was Biden, convinced he was in Independence Day, saying the coronavirus “is like we’re being attacked from abroad” – although a bunch of people getting sick because the government is too timid to ask people not to go to a goddamn St Patrick’s Day bar crawl is not exactly an alien invasion. He talked about sending the military in to deal with it, as if it were a foreign country of brown people, with oil reserves.”
In the US, Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker has ordered all schools to close for three weeks starting Tuesday in Boston and across the state, the Boston Globe reports.
Restaurants will remain open for takeout.
Baker has limited public gatherings to 25 people.
South Korea reports its third day where recoveries exceed new cases, despite new cluster near Seoul
South Korea has reported its third day when recoveries have outstripped infections, but a new cluster of infections has surfaced in Seongnam city, south of Seoul. At least 40 members of a Protestant church tested positive, including the pastor, after services on 1 March and 8 March, despite government calls to cancel mass gatherings.
In the country as a whole, 74 new coronavirus infections were reported on Monday, slightly lower than the previous day, health officials said, taking the tally of cases to 8,236, with 75 deaths.
New infections have been on a declining trajectory, with the latest figures well below a 29 February peak of 909, and slightly down from 76 on Sunday.
As many as 303 more patients were released after a full recovery, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, bringing the total number of recoveries to 1,137.
“For three straight days we have seen more numbers of discharged than newly confirmed, but we should not forget the lessons we’ve learned,” the vice health minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing.
Officials warned that “sporadic outbreaks” continued in the hardest-hit areas, such as the southeastern city of Daegu. The new outbreaks were from unknown sources in other cities, Kim said, adding, “This implies the coronavirus is spreading across the country.”
In New Zealand, at 1am on Monday tough new restrictions came into force on the country’s borders, meaning everyone landing in New Zealand from overseas would be required to self-isolate for 14 days. Those arriving from the Pacific Islands were exempt.
Prime minister Ardern said the government were committed to enforcing the self-isolation stipulations and anyone who flouted the rules was “not welcome” in New Zealand and would be deported.
It was also an option to “put a police officer on their door” if someone was not adhering to self-isolation rules, Ardern said, which required they largely stayed inside and kept two metres physical distance from others, including family members.
An important and only slightly baffling message from Arnold Schwarzenegger. His advice on social isolation is sound, and his miniature horses are incredible.
Arnold
(@Schwarzenegger)Stay at home as much as possible. Listen to the experts, ignore the morons (foreheads). We will get through this together. pic.twitter.com/FRg41QehuB
Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno announced in a televised address on Sunday that all movement of people and vehicles would be restricted from 6am on Tuesday, 17 March. Exceptions would be made to buy food, visit hospitals, commute to and from work, or to care for the sick or elderly.
The police and the armed forces would enforce the measures, Moreno said. “They are measures we should all commit to,” he added.
Ecuador has so far confirmed 37 cases of Covid-19, including two deaths.
The Andean country announced on Saturday it would shut its sea, land and air frontiers to all foreign travelers from Sunday while its citizens and foreigners with Ecuadorean residency would have until the end of Monday to return.
