A business conference addressing coronavirus has been cancelled to avoid spreading the coronavirus.
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has cancelled a roundtable conference due to take place on Friday, along with conferences scheduled between 11 March and 3 April around the US.
According to Bloomberg, the CFR’s “Doing Business Under Coronavirus” conference joins a growing list of cancelled or postponed events in New York state, which holds the largest cluster of cases in the US.
The think tank’s website carried a statement reading: “There are currently no upcoming events. Please check back soon for new events.”
New York’s governor has announced that he is sending the National Guard to help fight what is believed to be the US’s biggest cluster of coronavirus cases.
The move came as health authorities contended with alarming groups of infections on both sides of the country and scattered cases in between.
Schools, houses of worship and large gathering places will be closed for two weeks in a “containment area” centred in New Rochelle, and the troops will scrub surfaces and deliver food to the zone, which extends a mile in all directions from a point near a synagogue connected to some of the cases, Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
“It is a dramatic action, but it is the largest cluster of cases in the country,” he said. “The numbers are going up unabated, and we do need a special public health strategy.”
New Rochelle and surrounding Westchester County account for at least 108 cases out of 173 statewide. New York City, with 100 times the population of New Rochelle, has 36 known infections.
In Oakland, California, thousands of increasingly bored and restless passengers on board a cruise ship struck by the coronavirus waited for their turn to get off the vessel and go to US military bases or back to their home countries for two weeks of quarantine.
In Washington state, where at least 19 deaths have been connected to a Seattle-area nursing home, Governor Jay Inslee announced new rules for screening health care workers and limiting visitors.
“If we assume there are 1,000 or more people who have the virus today … the number of people who are infected will double in five to eight days,” he warned.
Related: Health Minister becomes first MP to test positive for Covid-19
