With space to store oil scarce, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate for May delivery ended trading at -$37.63 a barrel ahead of Tuesday’s close for futures contracts — when traders who buy and sell the commodity for profit would have had to take physical possession of it.

“It’s a contract for something that nobody wants to buy,” said Matt Smith of ClipperData.

The remarkable decline comes as the petroleum industry emerges as one of the corners of the global economy made most vulnerable by government shutdowns to limit the spread of coronavirus.

The commodity has been further weakened by a battle for market share that raged much of the spring between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

A deal announced last week between OPEC and its peers to cut production by about 10 million barrels per-day from May appears not to have been enough, while the closely-monitored storage capacity at Cushing, Oklahoma was almost full as of Monday morning.

“It’s a dump at all cost as no one… wants delivery of oil, with Cushing storage facilities filling by the minute,” AxiCorp’s Stephen Innes said.

“It hasn’t taken long for the market to recognize that the OPEC+ deal will not, in its present form, be enough to balance oil markets.”

Still, Smith noted that Monday’s negative price only affects oil deliveries due Tuesday.

US oil futures for delivery in May also fell sharply, by 18 percent, but finished at $20.43 per barrel.

The European benchmark contract, London Brent North Sea oil for June delivery, ended down nine percent at $25.57 per barrel.

“This moment is of course historical and could not better illustrate the price-utopia that the market has been in since March, when the full scale of the oversupply problem started to become evident but the market remained oblivious,” said Rystad Energy’s Oil Markets Analyst Louise Dickson.

“Since then traders have sent prices up and down on speculation, hopes, tweets and wishful thinking. But now reality is sinking in.”

The cratering of the oil market prompted more selling on Wall Street, where all three indices were decisively negative in the final hour of trading.

Most European markets ended the day higher as governments start to consider how and when to ease the lockdowns that have crippled the global economy.

Italy, Spain, France and Britain reported drops in daily death tolls and slowing infection rates, while Germany began allowing some shops to reopen and Norway restarted nurseries

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An additional 5,974 infections brought to 92,472 the number of people who have officially tested positive for COVID-19 in Italy since the crisis began last month. Officials have warned that the peak of the crisis was still days away, as the global infection rate surges relentlessly upwards.

With more than 300,000 people infected in Europe alone, the disease shows few signs of slowing, and has already cast the world into a recession, economists say. The death toll from the epidemic sweeping the globe surged past 20,000 in Europe on Saturday.

It came as Italy recorded almost 1,000 deaths from the virus on Friday — the worst one-day toll anywhere since the pandemic began. One coronavirus sufferer, a cardiologist from Rome who has since recovered, recalled his hellish experience at a hospital in the capital.

“The treatment for the oxygen therapy is painful, looking for the radial artery is difficult. Desperate other patients were crying out, ‘enough, enough’,” he told .

In one bright spot, infection rates in Italy continued their recent downward trend. But the head of the national health institute Silvio Brusaferro said the country was not out of the woods yet, predicting “we could peak in the next few days”.

Spain too said its rate of new infections appeared to be slowing — despite also reporting its deadliest day.

Europe has suffered the brunt of the coronavirus crisis in recent weeks, with millions across the continent on lockdown and the streets of Paris, Rome and Madrid eerily empty.

In Britain, the two men leading the country’s fight against the coronavirus — Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Health Secretary Matt Hancock — both announced Friday they had tested positive for COVID-19.

“I am now self-isolating, but I will continue to lead the government’s response via video-conference as we fight this virus,” Johnson, who had initially resisted calls for a nationwide lockdown before changing course, wrote on Twitter.

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There are a total of 35,713 confirmed cases in the country, with more than 4,000 having successfully recovered.

Lombardy, the worst-hit region, recorded 319 deaths in one day.

Italy is the world’s worst affected country after China, where the virus originated last year. At least 8,758 people have died, most in China.

The vast majority of the more than 200,000 confirmed cases – 80% – have occurred in Europe and the Western Pacific region, which includes much of Asia, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Many countries have taken drastic measures, including social distancing and cancelling major events to help slow transmission and reduce pressure on the health systems.

“But to suppress and control epidemics, countries must isolate, test, treat and trace,” the WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus said.

Italy has been on lockdown for almost two weeks as authorities try to halt the progress of the virus.

People have been asked to stay indoors – but the number of deaths has continued to spiral.

The coronavirus pandemic, which has infected over 2.1 lakh people around the world and killed more 8,000, is causing fear worldwide as more countries initiate partial or full lockdowns to combat its spread. The disease, which spreads through the droplets of an infected person, can stay on various surfaces for a long time. Thus, its reccomended to not touch objects and keep one’s hand away from the face, as well. .

The 2020 edition of Sydney Film Festival stands cancelled amid the spread of coronavirus. The movie gala, which was scheduled to be held from June 3 to June 14, has been called off for the first time ever, reported Deadline.

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“All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/international organizations, employment, project visas, stand suspended till 15th April 2020,” it said in the statement.

The order will come into effect from 1200 GMT on March 13.

The decision was taken at the meeting of group of ministers held here under the chairmanship of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

“All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/International organisations, employment and project visas stand suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure,” the statement said.

Visa-free travel facility granted to OCI card holders is also kept in abeyance till April 15.

Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian Mission, the release said, adding that all incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15 will be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days.

Over 1,18,000 positive cases have been reported globally across 114 countries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11 said that according to its assessment, COVID-19 “can be characterised as a pandemic.”

“WHO has been assessing this outbreak round-the-clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” it said.

“Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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• This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure.

• Visa free travel facility granted to OCI card holders is kept in abeyance till April 15th 2020.

• This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure.

• Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian Mission.

• All incoming travelers, including Indians, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain & Germany after 15th Feb, 2020 shall be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days.

• The above will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure.

• Incoming travelers, including Indian nationals, are advised to avoid non-essential travel and are informed that they can be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days on their arrival in India.

• Indian nationals are strongly advised to avoid all non-essential travel abroad. On their return, they can be subjected to quarantine for a minimum of 14 days.

• International traffic through land borders will be restricted to Designated check posts with robust screening facilities.

• These will be notified separately by M/o Home Affairs.

• Provision for testing primarily for students / compassionate cases in Italy Italy to be made and collection for samples to be organized accordingly.

• Those tested negative will be allowed to travel and will be quarantined on arrival in India for 14 days.

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The central government had on Sunday confirmed five (5) new cases who had travel history to Italy.
Meanwhile, a factory worker who came in contact with the coronavirus positive businessman from Agra, has also tested positive. The new patient was admitted to Agra district hospital while three suspected patients from Aligarh and four from Siddhartha Nagar have been quarantined.

This takes the total number of cases to 41 in the country. The coronavirus outbreak has spread to over 90 countries with over 1 lakh cases worldwide.

After five fresh coronavirus cases in the state, the Kerala government on Sunday issued a renewed alert and warned action against those hiding travel history to affected nations.

Pathanamthitta district in Kerala has declared holiday for all educational institutes for the next three days. In neighbouring Kottayam also, schools and colleges have been ordered shut.

Meanwhile, pre-primary sections of most schools in Bengaluru will remain shut until further notice as a precautionary step following rising cases of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, in the country, the Karnataka government has said

Schools were shut in several states across the country, including primary schools in the Capital, as the number of cases due to the novel coronavirus rose to 39 in India. As part of efforts to contain the spread of the infection, three people who returned from coronavirus-affected regions in the past nine day were yesterday quarantined for suspected exposure in Indore in Madhya Pradesh. Assam, too, quarantined at least 400 people after they came in contact with an American tourist who tested positive for the virus in Bhutan after travelling through the state recently.

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“We got the report that a husband and two adult sons refused to let the woman out of the bathroom after she told them that she could have contracted the coronavirus,” national police spokesman Ramunas Matonis told .

The woman reportedly told her husband she may have caught the disease when she spoke with a person who had arrived from abroad.

“Police officers arrived, there was no violence, no complaint, therefore an ambulance was called,” the police spokesman said.

Local media reported that the woman tested negative for the presence of the new coronavirus, which has so far infected one person in Lithuania, an EU Baltic state of 2.8 million people.

The 39-year-old male victim had recently returned from Verona in an area of northern Italy that has recorded Europe’s highest number of deaths from the disease.

The virus death toll in Italy passed 100 on Wednesday.

Altogether the virus has killed over 3,000 people worldwide, most of them in China.

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Six more cases have tested positive in Agra, Uttar Pradesh having contact history with case in Delhi. Required action as per Cluster Management plan has been initiated. Further, an Italian Tourist & his wife have tested positive in Rajasthan. 14 other accompanying tourists in this group and their Indian bus driver tested positive on their return to Delhi. All of them are reported to be stable. A recent positive case has also been reported in Delhi yesterday (having travel history from Italy) and is stable.

The ever increasing magnitude of this outbreak globally calls for a concerted effort by not only health but all sectors of Government. Honourable Prime Minister is personally monitoring the preparedness and response on a regular basis .Government of India has initiated a series of action to prevent entry of the disease and to contain it. I am daily reviewing the situation. A Group of Ministers consisting of Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Civil Aviation and Minister of State for Home Affairs, Minister of State for Shipping and Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare chaired by me have been constituted to monitor the situation.

The Group of Ministers has met four times since its inception on 3rd February, 2020. Cabinet Secretary is taking regular reviews with all related Ministries of Health, Defence, Ministry of External Affairs, Civil Aviation, Home, Textiles, Pharma, Commerce and other officials including with State Chief Secretaries. My own Ministry is constantly reviewing the evolving scenario. Video Conferences are being held with States every other day.

Government of India has also taken several measures to control the risk of novel Corona virus infection spreading to India. Our First Travel Advisory was issued on 17th January 2020 and as situation is evolving, the travel advisories are accordingly getting revised.

Presently it prescribes, All regular (sticker) Visas/e-Visa (including Visa on Arrival for Japan and South Korea) granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan and issued on or before 03.03.2020 and who have not yet entered India, stand suspended with immediate effect.

Regular (sticker) visa / e-Visa granted to nationals of Peoples Republic of China, issued on or before 05.02.2020 were suspended earlier. It shall remain in force.

Regular (sticker) visas/e-Visas granted to all foreign nationals who have travelled to Peoples Republic of China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan on or after 01.02.2020, and who have not yet entered India stand suspended with immediate effect.

Diplomats, officials of UN and other International bodies, OCI cardholders and Aircrew from above countries are exempted from such restriction on entry. However, their screening at point of entry is compulsory.

Passengers of all international flights entering into India from any port are required to furnish duly filled self-declaration form (including personal particulars i.e. phone no. and address in India) and travel history, to Health Officials and Immigration officials at all ports.

Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy & Japan and advised to avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-19 affected countries.

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The 71-year-old man, who died in a hospital near Sacramento, had underlying health conditions and had been on a cruise ship, said officials.

The White House moved on Wednesday to expand testing nationwide for the disease. There are now at least 150 reported US patients with Covid-19 in 16 states.

Authorities have confirmed more than 92,000 cases of the virus worldwide, of which more than 80,000 are in China. More than 3,000 people have died globally, the vast majority in China.

Ten of the 11 US deaths were in Washington state, but the outbreak has also flared up in Texas and Nebraska.

Washington and Florida both declared states of emergency over the weekend to help prevent the coronavirus.

The California man who died is believed to have been exposed to the disease while travelling last month on a Princess Cruise ship that departed from San Francisco and visited Mexico.

The vessel has been ordered to return to port in San Francisco.

The ship is operated by Carnival, whose Diamond Princess cruise liner was quarantined last month after dozens of passengers tested positive for Covid-19 as it docked in Japan.

US Vice-President Mike Pence said on Wednesday that any American can be tested for the coronavirus if ordered by a doctor.

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