The outbreak of the coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of some 18,000 people globally, has also affected sporting events across the world.
COVID-19, as the disease is officially known, has infected more than 420,000 people worldwide.
Governments are scrambling to stop the spread of the virus, advising against public gatherings. In several countries, people have been cautioned not to shake hands to minimize risks of contamination.
Italy, Europe’s worst-hit country, has cancelled all sporting events until at least April 3 and the government has put the country in lockdown as it battles the virus.
In North America, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League have temporarily restricted locker room access to players and “essential staff”.
Football
Football in Russia has been suspended until April 10. The Russian league was the best-attended sports competition still operating in Europe last weekend, with more than 33,000 fans at one of its games, but the Russian Football Union agreed to immediately suspend all competitions at a meeting on March 17.
The African Nations Championship 2020 soccer tournament scheduled for April in Cameroon has been postponed indefinitely, the African Football Federation said in a statement on March 17.
This year’s Copa America has been postponed until 2021, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) said on March 17. The 12-team tournament had originally been scheduled to take place from June 12 to July 12 in Colombia and Argentina.
The Euro 2020 tournament has been postponed until 2021, European football’s governing body UEFA said in a statement on March 17. UEFA said that the 24-team tournament, which was due to be staged in 12 nations across the continent from June 12 to July 12 this year, would now take place from June 11 to July 11 2021.
In England, all elite football has been suspended until at least April 30.
UEFA postponed next week’s Champions League and Europa League matches, Europe’s football governing body announced on March 13.
The first and second tiers of Spanish domestic football have been suspended for the next two match days, the Spanish football federation La Liga and the players’ union said on March 12.
Germany’s Bundesliga and second division will pause at least until April 2 and possibly beyond due to the coronavirus, DFL CEO Christian Seifert said on March 16.
FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation have agreed to postpone the Asian World Cup qualifying matches in March and June.
In Greece, the Europa League’s last-16 first-leg match between Olympiacos and Wolverhampton Wanderers on March 12 was played behind closed doors.
The top two tiers of French football – Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 – have been suspended until further notice.
In Paris, the Champions League clash between PSG and Borussia Dortmund on March 11 took place in an empty stadium.
The German Football League (DFL) called off matches scheduled for March 13-15 in the Bundesliga and second-tier Bundesliga 2. They recommended that both leagues be suspended until April 2.
In Denmark, players from Brondby and Lyngby are in isolation after they met former international Thomas Kahlenberg, who has tested positive for the virus.
The Swiss league has been put on hold until at least March 23.
All Romanian league matches will be played without fans until further notice.
All Bulgarian league matches in the next two rounds will be played without fans. The Bulgarian Football Union suspended ticket sales for the Euro 2020 qualifying playoff semi-final between Bulgaria and Hungary for March 26.
New seasons in the Chinese, Japanese and South Korean professional leagues have been postponed.
Asian Champions League matches involving Chinese clubs Guangzhou Evergrande, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai SIPG have been postponed. The start of the knockout rounds has been moved back to September.
The Confederation of African Football has postponed two rounds of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers scheduled for March 25-31.
This season’s Champions League final, Europa League final and women’s Champions League final, all due to be played in May, were formally postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic, European soccer’s governing body UEFA announced on March 23.
Marathons
The London Marathon, which was scheduled to take place on April 26, has been postponed until October 4.
The Boston Marathon, originally scheduled for April 4, is now expected to take place on September 14.
The Paris and Barcelona marathons were also postponed.
In Japan on March 1, the Tokyo Marathon, which usually attracts 300,000 participants, was restricted to only 200 elite runners.
Olympic Games
The International Olympic Committee and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have concluded the Tokyo 2020 Olympics must be postponed, and held no later than the summer of 2021, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organisers said on March 24.
After a call with IOC president Thomas Bach, Abe said the July 24-August 9 event would be rescheduled for the summer of 2021 at the latest, as proof of victory over the coronavirus.
Athletics
The World Athletics Indoor Championships, scheduled for Nanjing from March 13 to 15, have been postponed until next year.
Amsterdam, Paris and Barcelona marathons have also been postponed.
Formula 1
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix became the latest postponement in the calendar, meaning there will be no Formula One races until the middle of June at the earliest.
The race at the Baku City Circuit was scheduled for June 7.
Formula 1 has cancelled the season-opening Australian GP after a McLaren team member contracted the coronavirus. The race was scheduled to take place on March 15.
The Bahrain Grand Prix and the Vietnam Grand Prix have been postponed. Those events were first scheduled to take place on March 20-22 and April 3-5 respectively.
The Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, which was scheduled to take place on April 19, was also called off.
Races in the Netherlands, Spain and Monaco in May have all been postponed, the governing motorsport body FIA said on March 19.
Tennis
The professional tennis tour – men’s and women’s – has been suspended until June 7, with all clay court tournaments in Europe cancelled. ATP and WTA rankings have been frozen until further notice.
organizers said on March 17. The clay court major was originally scheduled to be played from May 24-June 7.
Boxing
The Tokyo Olympic boxing qualifiers for Asia and Oceania were moved to Jordan from China.
However, the European, American and final world qualifying boxing tournaments for the Olympic Games have been suspended, the International Olympic Committee said.
Briton Anthony Joshua’s world heavyweight title defense against Bulgarian Kubrat Pulev would probably take place at the end of the year instead of June 20 at Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium in London as scheduled.
Basketball
The National Basketball Association (NBA) said on March 11 that it was suspending the season until further notice after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the virus.
The WNBA draft will be a virtual event this year. The women’s league announced that its draft will still be held on April 17 as originally scheduled, but without players, fans or media in attendance due to the coronavirus pandemic.
MotoGP
The opening two rounds of the season in Qatar, which were scheduled for March 6-8, did not go ahead. The Thailand race, due to be held on March 22, has been postponed.
April rounds in Texas and Argentina have been pushed back to November.
The Spanish Grand Prix scheduled for May 3 has also been postponed. It is the fifth MotoGP race to be canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus.
Rugby
In France, the country’s rugby federation said on March 13 that it was suspending all of its competitions due to the outbreak.
At least three Six Nations matches have been postponed.
The women’s Six Nations game between Scotland and France was postponed after a Scottish player tested positive for coronavirus.
The Singapore and Hong Kong legs of the World Rugby Sevens Series have been postponed from April to October.
Table tennis
The world championships in Busan, South Korea, have been pushed back provisionally from March to June.
The April 21 to 26 World Tour Japan Open in Kitakyushu has been postponed.
Golf
The Honda LPGA Thailand event and the HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore have been cancelled.
The Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur and the China Open have been postponed.
The Indian and China opens have both been postponed.
Cycling
Top one-day cycling races Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege have been postponed, organizers said on March 17. Paris-Roubaix and Liege-Bastogne-Liege, which were due to be held on April 12 and 26 respectively, are two of the five “Monument” races of the cycling calendar with the Tour of Flanders, Milan-Sanremo and the Tour of Lombardy.
The Tour of Flanders and Milan-Sanremo have already been postponed. A new date has yet to be set for the races.
The final two stages of the UAE Tour were cancelled after two Italian participants tested positive for the coronavirus.
Four teams have pulled out of several cycling races in Italy.
The Giro d’Italia start on May 9 in Budapest has been postponed. A new start date will not be determined until at least April 3.
Baseball
The final qualification tournament for the Olympics in Taiwan has been postponed from April to June.
Japan and South Korea professional league has postponed the start of the new season.
Major League Baseball (MLB), the US’s professional baseball league, suspended its “spring training”, a period in the off-season that features practices and exhibition games that allow trainers to test new players on different teams.
The MLB also delayed its opening day, which was scheduled for March 26, for at least two weeks.
MLB games scheduled to be played in Mexico City and San Juan, Puerto Rico, are cancelled.
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) cancelled scheduled games for both men and women on Thursday afternoon.
The NCAA organises all sports for athletes in university, an important league that showcases young talent to recruiters for professional sports in the US.
The cancellation extends to all championships scheduled in the spring, including hockey, baseball and lacrosse.
Cricket
The men’s Cricket World Cup Challenge League A, scheduled to begin on March 16 in Malaysia, has been postponed.
The Pakistan Cricket Board announced that Pakistan Super League matches in Karachi will be played with no spectators in the stadium.
England’s two-match test series in Sri Lanka scheduled to start on March 19 was postponed.
Judo
The International Judo Federation cancelled all Olympic qualification events through to the end of April.
Weightlifting
The Asian Championships, scheduled to take place in Uzbekistan from April 16 to 25, have been cancelled.
Winter sports
The Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships in Canada have been cancelled.
The World Short Track Speed Skating Championships in Seoul, South Korea, have been postponed until at least October.
Australian Rules
The AFL game between St Kilda Saints and Port Adelaide Power scheduled for May 31 in China has been moved to Melbourne.
NHL
The National Hockey League, primarily based in the US but with teams from Canada, announced on Wednesday it is suspending its season for at least two weeks.
The NHL’s board of governors are meeting to finalise details of the suspension, according to reports. Two weeks is the current minimum amount of time the season will be halted.
Wrestling
Asian Olympic qualifying event from March 27-29 was moved from Xi’an, China to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
On February 29, Kyrgyzstan withdrew as host.
Horse racing
The Dubai World Cup, one of the world’s richest horse races and a premier annual sporting event in the United Arab Emirates, scheduled for March 28, has been postponed to next year, Dubai’s government media office tweeted on March 22.
The 146th running of the Kentucky Derby has been moved to September 5. It will be the first time the world-renowned horse race hasn’t been run on the first Saturday in May since 1945, when it was moved because of World World II.
Badminton
Badminton’s Thomas and Uber Cup Finals being staged in Aarhus, Denmark, have been postponed from May 16-24 to Aug. 15-23..
The biennial event features national teams.
Coronavirus What sporting events are affected by the pandemic?
Tripartite agreement signed to fight COVID 19
Ethiopia launches the first kind of tripartite agreement between the government, employers and employees, of work force protocol to encompasses measures taken to fight against the pandemic virus Covid 19 by employers, employees and safety committees.
“Even if reducing the impact of Covid 19 is the top priority of the government, the disease can have a negative impact on the economic growth and its potential impact on labor relations is huge,” said Ergego Tesfaye, Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.
Workplace Response Protocol is to be implemented by actors is prepared according to the International Labor Organization guideline for response to crisis management when work is under attack by natural and man-made disasters. The protocol was signed between three parties’ Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Confederation of Labor and Confederation of Trade Unions.
The Covid 19 epidemic, despite the fact that the country’s anti-corona movement is being carried out by industry and service providers, the disease can have a negative impact on the economic growth and its potential impact on labor relations is huge. The protocol is carefully researched and believed that it can foster a persuasive and sustainable industrial peace. The protocol advises taking legal and administrative action.
The Protocol also urge basic workplace protection strategies to be implemented by employers, employees and safety committee that includes precautions to be taken. The ability to respond to crisis in organizations varies from organization to organization and also from sector to sector and as a result, solutions not only derive from the organizations, but also the step-by-step recommendations are prescribed by the protocol.
The launching of the protocol, which was attended by the leaders was to provide the workers and employees to prevent and control the outbreak of the Covid 19 epidemic.
COVID 19 is threatening the health and the livelihoods of workers and employers globally. As stated on the protocol, policy responses should focus on two immediate goals, health protection measures and economic support on both the demand and supply side.
First, workers and employers and their families should be protected from the health risks of COVID 19. Protective measures at the workplace and across communities should be introduced and strengthened, requiring large-scale public support and investment. Second, timely, large-scale and coordinated policy efforts should be taken to provide employment and income support and to stimulate the economy and labor demand.
As stated on the ILO guideline protocol, such kind of measures not only cushion enterprises and workers against immediate employment and income losses, but also help prevent a chain of supply shocks such as losses in workers’ productivity capacities and demand shocks as suppressing consumption among workers and their families that could lead to a prolonged economic recession.
Employment retention schemes, including short-time work arrangements partial unemployment benefits and other time-bound support for enterprises, such as wage subsidies and temporary cuts to payroll tax exemptions from social security contributions provision of paid leave and extension of existing entitlements to workers, and training leave, grants and related schemes; time-bound financial tax relief and income smoothing measures to support business continuity, especially MSMEs and the self-employed subsidies, credit mediation or re-financing to overcome liquidity constraints.
300,000 government employees working from home
In order to prevent the spread of corona Covid 19 virus through social distance as a key strategy Ethiopia orders around 300,000 federal employees to stay and work from home.
In an attempt to stop the spread of corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Council of Ministers chaired by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in a meeting held on March 24, 2020 decided that selected civil servants in Addis Ababa should work from home.
The Council of Ministers met in an extraordinary session to discuss COVID-19 response measures, in light of the social, political and economic effects spread of the virus can create.
“The Council of Ministers has decided that as part of efforts to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Federal Government employees will work from home effective March 25, 2020 until further notified. Federal Government employees who will work from home will be selected based on criteria to be set by each Ministry and communicated with their workforce,” the Office of the Prime Minister said in a statement.
There are 58 federal offices including the 16 Ministry offices. Accordingly there are more than 400,000 of civil servants at the federal level and 1.4 million employees at government level all over the country.
Based on the call to curb the spread of COVID-19 most Ministry offices are taking measures to decrease the number of employees staying at the office.
Hence Ministry of Health has announced 42 percent of its staff will be either on leave or working from home, the Ministry of Education and its reporting institutes have decided that among the 1,544 staffs in total only 196 (12.7%) will be in office over the coming days the remaining staffs will work from home.
The prime ministry office by itself announced that 64 percent of a total of 289 PMO staff members including advisors will work from home for the next two weeks.
Ministry of Trade and Industry has decided to 61 percent of its workforce to work from home.
Ministry of Urban Development and Construction, 75 percent, Ministry of Finance, 43 percent, Ministry of Revenues, 34 percent, Ministry of Agriculture, 20 percent, of their workforce will work from home.
Moreover Public Social Security Agency, 79 percent and 90 percent of Ministry of Science and Higher Education will work from home.
During this period, Federal Government employees working from home are expected to be accessible for tasks that require their contribution. This measure is taken to decrease city wide movement and transport sector crowding,” the statement from the Prime Minister office said.
‘As Federal Government institutions follow this approach to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, it is critical to note that these measures are also being taken to ease overcrowding in the public transportation system. Therefore, government employees are asked to adhere strictly to the ‘work from home’ policy and remain at home,’ the statement further added.
Ethiopia to releases inmates to curb coronavirus spread
Ethiopia releases more than 4,011 prisoners on Thursday March 26, in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Attorney General Adanech Abebe said inmates convicted of minor crimes, with less than a year left on their sentences, and women with babies, qualify for release.
Ethiopia is also deporting foreign inmates being held on drug-trafficking charges to their native countries.
In related news a fire broke out at Qilinto Prison facility on Saturday March 28 after prisoners were allegedly rioted demanding to be released.
So far, Ethiopia has had 16 confirmed cases of coronavirus, but with the disease spreading rapidly across Africa, the government decided to take action to fight the spread of the virus.
The government is constantly urging Ethiopians to practice social distancing, even as large crowds ignore warnings and gather for events in the capital, Addis Ababa.
