FIFA is considering postponing the Asian World Cup qualifiers due to be played this month because of the coronavirus outbreak, the global football body said on Thursday.
China’s matches against Maldives at home and Guam away have already been moved Buriram, Thailand, and will be played behind closed doors.
FIFA said it would provide an update following consultations with the national associations and would continue to monitor the situation in co-operation with the World Health Organisation.
However, more than two dozen other matches are scheduled to be played around the continent over two match days on March 26 and 31.
“A formal proposal to postpone upcoming matches in the Asian FIFA World Cup 2022 and the Asian Cup 2023 qualifiers will now be shared with the relevant member associations,” said FIFA in a statement.
“For both FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the well-being and health of all individuals involved in football matches remains the highest priority,” it added.
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US President Donald Trump donated his 2019 fourth quarterly salary to help fight the coronavirus outbreak in the US.
The president who has donated every one of his salary payments to government agencies has donated his 2019 fourth quarterly salary to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump made the payment after taking a trip to the National Institute of Health on Tuesday afternoon to meet top immunologist Anthony Fauci as the US now has 100 confirmed cases of coronavirus with nine deaths recorded in Washington.
Trump’s yearly salary is $400,000 every year from which he is paid $100,000 every 3 months.
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham posted on Twitter an image of the $100,000 check from Trump to HHS Secretary Alex Azar.
South Africa on Thursday confirmed its first case of the novel coronavirus, a 38-year-old male who travelled to Italy, health ministry announced.
It is the first case in southern Africa and the latest confirmed case in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and Senegal.
“This morning, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases confirmed that a suspected case of COVID-19 has tested positive,” Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said in a statement.
The case was detected in the country’s eastern Kwa-Zulu Natal province.
The patient and his wife were part of a group of 10 people who arrived back in South Africa from Italy on March 1.
Two days later, on March 3, he consulted a private general practitioner with a fever, headache, sore throat and a cough.
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