world leaders initiate tougher measures. britain's borisjohnson has called the coronavirus pandemic the worst health crisis in a generation. he warned that many more families would lose loved ones before their time. he said it was important to get the timing right for the toughest procedures. in total, ten people have now died in the uk with the virus. the outbreak has led global stock markets to record some of their biggest ever one—day losses. in new york, the dowjones closed 10% down, while european markets also saw double—digit falls. and this story is trending on bbc.com. england's football premier league will hold an emergency club meeting on friday regarding future fixtures. it follows arsenal's manager, mikel arteta, testing positive for the coronavirus. club staff who had recent contact with arteta will now self—isolate. that's all, stay with bbc world news.

more on our website, bbc.co.uk/news, and the news app. now on bbc news, live to singapore for asia business report. asian markets plunged. japan's nikkei is down more than 10% after wall street had its worst day since the 1980s. and the tourist hotspot turned ghost town. how the fall in chinese travellers is decimating china's islands. good morning and welcome to asia business report, live from singapore, with me, mariko oi. let's begin here in asia, because markets are opening well and truly in the red following wall street having its

worst day since the market crash of 1987. let's start with japan's nikkei, down more than 9% on this board, this is slightly delayed, now down more than 10%, the biggest one—day fall since that tsunami in 2011. the hang seng also opened sharply lower just now. 2011. the hang seng also opened sharply lowerjust now. australia is also down by 7.5%. of course, this indexis also down by 7.5%. of course, this index is very commodity heavy, so it has been hit hard because of a fall in oil prices as well. so how does this volatility compare to the globalfinancial this volatility compare to the global financial crisis of 2008? i put that question to our correspondence. it certainly does look like a global financial crisis style pricing, but this one has not been driven by problems within the financial system. it is being driven by external shocks from the coronavirus and oil, which are causing a collapse in aggregate demand and supply and freezing up

the wheels of economic activity around the world. and i think we are starting to see now a real repricing of the effect of that on economic activity and on companies' results in 2020 as this viral spread really sta rts in 2020 as this viral spread really starts to root itself into developed markets around the world. we do have, though, the central banks and governments around the world announcing quite a number of measures, hoping just to make the economy is —— hoping to stimulate the economy. they need to do more?” think we need to be careful with the word stimulus in this context. the measures that have been announced on the fiscal front, measures that have been announced on the fiscalfront, i.e. by governments going out and giving money to the populace and to business, that is there to really keep the lights on, it is there to mitigate the effect of this slowdown. the big problem here is the lack of leadership from both the united states and europe in this case. we are seeing very aggressive

action by other countries around the world, but unfortunately we have had a complete lack of fiscal stimulus coming in from the united states and from europe, and none of it really looks like it is going to happen anytime soon. there are limits to monetary policy and its effects. simply cutting interest rates in markets like this will not be magic pa na cea for markets like this will not be magic panacea for a global recovery or just to keep the lights on. as jeffrey halley just to keep the lights on. as jeffrey halley mentioned, the falls and asian markets come on the back of another brutal day on wall street. check this out. all three major indices on wall street falling by more than 9%, suffering their worst day since that market crash of 1987. samira hussain explained why investors are so concerned. for the second time this week, trading was halted on us financial markets, after falling trading was halted on us financial markets, afterfalling more than trading was halted on us financial markets, after falling more than 7%, a threshold that automatically

triggers a temporary stop trading. the safety measure was put in place in1987, and the safety measure was put in place in 1987, and hasn't been used since 1997. and this week, it was used twice. markets are tanking. wall street is spooked, and investors are desperate for direction from the trump administration. this market is getting very unsatisfied with any news and headlines that we are seeing. i think the market is expecting our government to step in, is expecting the fed to make a statement, expecting our president to make a statement, and until the market gets that, we're to continue to see this pricing. the strain is not just being to see this pricing. the strain is notjust being felt in the stock market. down the road from the exchange, at the new york fed, traders for the central bank waded into the market in us government debt, increasing their planned purchase of government bonds by $1.5 trillion. briefly, that looks like it might calm some investor nerves.

but what financial markets are really looking for is dramatic action from congress and the white house to try and soften the blow the coronavirus is having on the heart of the us economy. but for now, there is little sign of it happening. with coronavirus disrupting the airlines industry as well as tourism, the first impact was felt right here in asia. a lot of countries, like thailand, rely heavily on visitors from china. in fa ct, heavily on visitors from china. in fact, more than 10 million of them come to thailand every year. many of them heading to the beaches of southern islands like phuket. but that lucrative flow of tourists stopped abruptly after the outbreak was made public in wuhan. our southeast asia correspondent jonathan head has been to phuket to see how they run coping. the famed beaches are still the same, but one factor behind phuket‘s roaring

success is missing. the chinese. 2 million used to visit this tropical island every year. today, you hardly see them at all. this lady used to sell 100 coconuts a day. the chinese we re sell 100 coconuts a day. the chinese were big spenders, she says. these days, she is lucky to sell 20. we have many flights from china to phuket. they stopped. we will have about 8000 to 10,000 tourists a day, but today, we have maybe about 600— 800 tourists. nattakit lorwitworrawat has been running boat tours from phuket for years. most of his passengers were chinese tourists, so he has had to take 20

of his 30 boats out of the water. if it doesn't get better by the end of this year, he said, we will have to downsize the company and start laying off employees. sojust downsize the company and start laying off employees. so just how much do you have to pay out every month for your business? it is even tougherfor month for your business? it is even tougher for those lower down the food chain, like somkiat prasarn. he has payments on his house and two ca i’s has payments on his house and two ca rs of has payments on his house and two cars of around $1500 a month. for him, even six months is too long. you can't survive that long. nothing. yes, we have nothing. tourism in this country has been amazingly resilient. it has survived global recessions, a tsunami, military coups and even other viruses are scarce. but the problem with this one is no—one yet has any idea how long it is going to last,

nor how serious it is going to be. tourism accounts for around one fifth of economic output in this country, and the rest of the economy is not doing well. thailand can ill afford a crisis here, yet there is little it can do against a virus whose full impact is still impossible to gauge. jonathan head, bbc news, phuket. meanwhile, apple is reopening all 42 stores in mainland china after they were forced to close down due to the coronavirus. china is apple's third biggest market, and the closures we re biggest market, and the closures were pa rt of biggest market, and the closures were part of the reason the tech giant pulled its revenue forecast for the march quarter. the company spokesman said all their stores have increased cleaning protocols recommended by health authorities as well as medical exports, experts. japan‘s nikkei down 9.5%, also over in hong kong, hang seng's index is also down by 7%. 0f

in hong kong, hang seng's index is also down by 7%. of course, we had that worst day on wall street, the dow falling by more than 2000 points. that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching. a number of countries have introduced drastic measures today to try to slow the spread of the virus, among them ireland. all schools, colleges and nurseries were closed until the end of the month, and mass gatherings have been banned. ed thomas reports. 6:00pm, and this was dublin at rush hour, from the streets to quiet city parks and empty restaurants, as ireland's partial shutdown began. i'm a bit scared, because i can't go home in case i pass it onto, like, my grandmother, my grandfather, so... what does this mean for you? well, it's better to be safe.

we're going to stay at home, and wait untilallthe... you've made that decision, stay at home with the children? yeah. so far, there's only one urgentjob. how manyjobs should there be? there should be at least 60 or 70 jobs on that. 70 jobs? at this time of the evening, yep. the advice here now is to work from home if you can. but, for a taxi driver like colin, that's a problem. finance — who's going to pay the bills? because i'm self—employed. so you're losing the school run. i have a school run, which — the schools are now going to be closed for two weeks. so if this carries on, what are you going to do? can you cope with this? no, definitely not. 0utside dublin, after the schools and colleges shutdown was announced, this was the picture in one supermarket. we filmed this in another store. the queue for essentials stretched along every aisle, as a nation asks family and friends to stay apart and hunker down. a bit frightening that people

were coming here to stock up on food, given the fact that it's a crisis. the newspaper's saying it's going to close soon, so ijust made some stock, to make sure that everybody was ready. businesses are going to stay open, though. well, we're not sure yet. there was concern, but also calm. the irish prime minister has acted and moved quickly. this partial shutdown, does it give you confidence? i think it certainly gives confidence to people who have families, it gives confidence to people who are in the workforce, because it's sort of a pre—emptive strike, as opposed to waiting until it escalates. and that is the bigger worry — what comes next. ed thomas, bbc news, dublin. next, it is time for sport today. hello, this is sport today, live from the bbc sport centre.

i'm tulsen tollett. coming up on this programme: formula 1 cancel the australian grand prix but what will happen to the calendar now? the atp tour has been suspended for six weeks, with the women's tour also set to postpone events. and no end in sight as the us women's team cover the badges on their playing shirts in protest at us soccer‘s comments over equal pay. hello there, and welcome to the programme. all of that and more to come but we start with the news that this weekend's season opening australian grand prix has been called off. it comes following a day of speculation after a mclaren team member tested positive for coronavirus in melbourne. it's understood ferrari's sebastian vettel and

kimi raikonnen of alfa romeo had already flown out of the country in anticipation of the race being cancelled. it took almost half a day before a decision to cancel was made and our f1 reporter jenny gow explains why. it comes down to finance and politics, to great certainties of life —— two. nobody wants to make the first move, and they —— the boss of formula 1 was coming over from vietnam to australia following meetings. so it has been a messy note for formula 1 and i don't think pr—wise it has been the smoothest of evenings for them. the press release says the 2020 australian grand prix has been cancelled. that is in contrast to the china grand prix which has been postponed at present. i don't think there were any plans, u nfortu nately, to i don't think there were any plans, unfortunately, to come back to melbourne until 2021, it is just a race that will have disappeared from the calendar. staying with that theme... the atp tour has postponed all play for six weeks due to what it calls

escalating health and safety issues arising from the coronavirus outbreak. all tournaments on the men's atp tour and challenger tours have been cancelled until the 27th of april. the wta is yet to make its decision, but it's expected there will be no tennis on the women's tour either for a similar period of time. well, it's very neat in many ways what the atp have done because they have declared this six—week suspension of the main atp tour and the challenger tour as well. the miami masters is off, the monte—carlo masters is also off, as is the tournament in barcelona. the next could be the ones in april. golf — and japan‘s hideki matsuyama leads after the first round of the players championship at sawgrass in florida. the world number 21 from japan — who hasn't won on the pga tour for 2.5 years opened

up with a 9—under—par