S.Korea reports 571 more virus cases for the day, total 2,337 

- Japanese island of Hokkaido declares state of emergency over pace of virus transmission, urges residents to stay home
- Japan closes all its elementary, secondary and high schools, and cancels sporting events and concerts; Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea to close until mid-March (Read more)

- Nigeria, New Zealand confirm their first cases of novel coronavirus

- Egypt's only COVID-19 case released from hospital 
- The US stock market on Thursday suffers its worst blow so far in a bad week 
- Chinese mainland reports 433 new infections of novel coronavirus, 29 new deaths

- Hubei reports 409 new new infections of novel coronavirus, 26 new deaths
- Zhong Nanshan says he believes the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic will basically be brought under control on the Chinese mainland by the end of April
- Though the first case of novel coronavirus pneumonia was reported in China, its source may not come from the country - Zhong Nanshan