Guy De Launey, BBC Balkans Correspondent

Slovenia has declared a coronavirus epidemic. It follows a steep rise in the number of cases. There are now almost 100 patients with Covid-19.

All schools will close from Monday and leave for medical staff has been cancelled.

Major sporting events have been cancelled. These include this weekend’s Alpine Ski World Cup at Kranjska Gora and the following weekend’s Ski Flying World Championships at Planica. All football matches have been postponed.

The incoming government - formed after Prime Minister Marjan Šarec's resignation this year - says it will enact further measures after it takes office tomorrow evening.

See if you might be suffering from any of these symptoms:

Image source, Getty Images

French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed that the country's local elections will go ahead.

There had been suggestions that they could be cancelled due to coronavirus.

But Mr Macron also announced that schools across the country would close from Monday.

The president also said businesses would be asked to allow staff to work from home. He also urged people over 70 and those with health issues to stay at home.

Public transport would remain operating, he added.

Anna Holligan
BBC Hague Correspondent

“Doe normaal” – behave normally - is a popular Dutch phrase which has neatly encapsulated the Dutch government response. Until today.

Flanked by the health minister, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced new measures designed to limit the spread of the virus:

• A ban on gatherings of more than 100 people
• Colleges and universities told to offer students online tutorials (but primary and secondary schools will remain open)
• People with low immunity and the elderly advised to isolate themselves
• People who have coronavirus symptoms – cough plus fever - told to stay at home

"The Netherlands is a patient and we must decide which treatment the patient needs and then look at how the patient responds to it," Mr Rutte said, rejecting criticism that the Netherlands had been too slow to react.

These new measures will remain in place until the end of the month.

Eurovision, the Invictus Games and the Dutch Grand Pix planned for May are immune, for now.

The Dutch response to the outbreak has been typically sensible, and comparatively understated within the EU - a source of pride for some and concern for others.

But in Dutch restrooms women are now scrubbing their hands more deliberately that usual.

The advice is wash your hands, and don't shake another person's.

One of the United States's iconic buildings, the White House, is closing its doors to the public. Normally visitors can apply for a guided tour of the building where the president lives and works, but that's been suspended until further notice.

Image source, Getty Images

Peter Bowes
North America correspondent

I should be back in the UK by now, but last night at Los Angeles International Airport, it was not clear that would happen. Jaws dropped at Gate 41 when news broke that the US was banning travel from Europe because of Covid-19.

Boarding had already started for my American Airlines flight to London when details of President Trump’s pronouncement began to filter through. One man mumbled that it could be fake news. It was not immediately clear to passengers that the UK was exempt. Airline staff were dumbfounded and said they had not been given any guidance by their superiors.

Some people continued to board, perhaps oblivious to the news, while others decided to cancel their trips. A common train of thought was that it was not worth the risk of being stranded abroad, should the situation worsen. Luggage was hurriedly removed from the plane and calls made to try to cancel hotel and rental car reservations in the UK.

One fellow traveller, a Briton who has lived in the US since 1995, told me he was taking his young son for a long weekend to attend a football match. He was relieved that the trip was off, he confided.

Pradeep Bashyal
BBC Nepali, Kathmandu

Image source, Pradeep Bashyal

Nepal's government has cancelled the Everest expedition season amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Narayan Prasad Bidari, Secretary of the Office of Prime Minister, said: “We have decided to halt all tourist visas until April 30."

The decision was made by a committee headed by Deputy PM Ishwor Pokhrel.

The decision reads: “As of now, all issued permits and permits yet to be issued for the 2020 Everest season will be cancelled."

Any foreigners who are unable to avoid coming to Nepal from 14 March should stay in quarantine for 14 days, it adds.

China has already cancelled expeditions from the northern side of the mountain.

Most climbers come from the US, India, China, UK, Japan, and South Korea.

Image source, Pradeep Bashyal

Lakpa Sherpa, managing director of Pioneer Adventure, said: “My nine Chinese clients and a Japanese client have cancelled already. Many trekking teams are not coming, which is a big loss for sherpas like us who make most of our money during this time.”

Adrian Ballinger, an American climber operating from the north side of the mountain earlier wrote on Facebook: “Climbing a mountain is not currently worth the transmission risk in the base camps, nor upon returning home.”

Nepal's government has asked its citizens to avoid mass gatherings including marriages and public functions. The country's parliament was closed for a week after concerns were raised about a member's health.

Image source, Getty Images

New York State's Governor Andrew Cuomo has banned gatherings of more than 500 people - and those rules also apply to New York City's famous Broadway theatre shows.

Broadway - a key source of revenue for New York City - will shutter until 12 April, the New York Times reports, external.

The ban goes into full effect tomorrow, but Broadway shows will end tonight.

Many of the city's other cultural attractions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Metropolitan Opera and Carnegie Hall, have also closed their doors because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The city currently has 62 confirmed cases of the virus. Across New York State, there are more than 200 total cases.

Italy hopes to be the first European country to get over the coronavirus emergency, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has told the BBC's Mark Lowen.

The death toll in Italy has continued to rise after the whole country was placed in lockdown this week, but Mr Di Maoi says the measures imposed in the first quarantine zone in northern Italy had been effective.

Two weeks after the first 10 towns in northern Italy were declared a "red zone" and put under lockdown, he said they had no new infections.

This then served as a model to tighten measures across the country.

"Italy was the first nation in Europe to be affected so badly," said Mr Di Maio. "But I hope it also means that Italy is the first one to leave the emergency behind."

You can read more of Mark Lowen's piece here.

Reddit users who have self-isolated or been placed under quarantine are sharing things they wish they had picked up before being stuck inside.

A writer from Italy says she wishes she had bought gloves and hand sanitiser, a man in Germany shared his regret about not getting more bin bags when he had the chance, and a woman who lives in a rural area with few shops says she regrets not travelling out-of-town sooner to buy essentials.

But one person in Seattle who has self-isolated due to an autoimmune disorder has shared her top tip for keeping a five-year-old entertained - buy a trampoline.

"I'm really glad I bought it," she said. "We are a week into quarantine and every time my kid gets restless, we send him to the trampoline."

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

The UN's educational, scientific and cultural body, Unesco, external, says 46 countries now have nationwide school closures in place in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Schools have been closed for different lengths of time in different places. For example:

• Denmark is among the latest countries to shut all schools - and universities - for a fortnight. It took the decision after a sharp rise in overall cases, with 514 now confirmed
• Kazakhstan - where there are zero confirmed cases - has also announced schools will be closed from Monday
• Last week, Italy shut schools for about a month. It came after 2,500 cases were confirmed in the country
• Late last month, officials in Japan asked all schools to close until the end of school year in late March. The move came after 186 cases were confirmed
• Ireland closed all of its schools and colleges from 18:00 GMT today until 29 March
• Schools and universities have also been closed in Algeria, and will remain shut until 5 April

Elsewhere, 13 countries have closed some schools in areas which have seen the most outbreaks, Unesco said.

These areas include Madrid in Spain and two regions in France - Brittany and the Oise region, north of Paris. Local reports also suggest most schools in Ukraine will be shut.

In the UK and Germany, a relatively small number of schools have been closed temporarily to allow for deep cleaning after staff or pupils tested positive or returned from high-risk areas.

Image source, Getty Images

A senior adviser to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - Iran's spiritual leader and its highest authority - has tested positive for coronavirus, Tasnim news agency reports.

The adviser, Ali Akbar Velayati, who also is the head of Tehran's Masih Daneshvari hospital, is being held under quarantine.

Iran's government has yet to officially confirm the report.

Ayatollah Khamenei is an 80-year-old cleric who, as Iran's Supreme Leader, has the final say over all government matters in the country.

He has also consistently taken hard-line stances on foreign policy, including the ongoing confrontation with the United States.

Image source, Getty Images

Budapest is closing all of its cinemas, theatres, museums and libraries from today, state news agency MTI has said.

Mayor Gergely Karacsony announced that performances would be suspended at all cinemas and theatres maintained by the city, and services would be suspended at museums and libraries.

He added that no matter how seriously the move affected tourism in the Hungarian capital, "this step must be taken to minimise the risk of epidemic".

Hungary has 16 cases of the virus so far.

Andrew O'Dwyer says he contracted the virus while skiing in Italy.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the formation of an emergency national unity government to deal with the coronavirus threat.

"We are altering our internal routine in order to handle an outside threat, the threat of the virus," Mr Netanyahu said.

He also ordered most schools in the country to close.

On Tuesday a 14-day quarantine was made mandatory for all arrivals.

Mr Netanyahu's right-wing political bloc failed to win a majority in the general election earlier this month, and talks have been ongoing to form a majority government.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Disneyland Paris has cancelled all of its parades and outdoor shows until April 15, according to French media, external.

The resort also said it had "adjusted" the capacity of its queues, theatres and two of its restaurants along with its largest store. However it did not give more details on the actual figures.

Three staff members have tested positive for the virus. All of them are said to be maintenance workers who had not been in contact with the public.

After the coronavirus outbreak in China caused an economic slowdown, satellite images showed a dramatic decline in pollution levels over the country.

Now the same effect may have been seen in northern Italy, where some towns have been under quarantine since late February. Scientist Santiago Gasso, of US space agency Nasa and the University of Maryland, used European Space Agency data to observe reductions of nitrogen dioxide, a pollution indicator, in northern Italy. He shared them on Twitter, where they were picked up by Italian media.

"It is clear that the NO2 has decreased in the last two images which are two days in different weeks, so my conclusion is that nitrogen dioxide (which is usually produced by cars and buses) has been going down," Mr Gasso told BBC News.

The European Space Agency says hasn't produced its own conclusions yet. “We haven’t seen a significant difference yet but we are working on this,” says an ESA spokesperson.

An elderly person has become the first person to die in Norway from coronavirus, Prime Minister Erna Solberg told the Norwegian broadcaster NRK. The total number of cases in the country rose to 621 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile King Harald and Queen Sonja will be self-isolating after visiting Jordan earlier this month, and six government ministers are also in quarantine, according to Norwegian channel TV2.

The chief scientific adviser says the number of infected people is much higher than the 590 identified cases.

Image source, Getty Images

The release of the new Fast and Furious film has been pushed back by almost a year as the impact of the coronavirus outbreak hits Hollywood.

F9 was due out in May, but will now not reach cinemas until April 2021.

"It's become clear that it won't be possible for all of our fans around the world to see the film this May,"a statement said on Twitter, external.

It follows delays to other films including James Bond's No Time To Die, A Quiet Place II and Peter Rabbit 2.

Read our full story here.