March 8, Sunday, 2020 (2:00 p.m.) Read by a non-regular male announcer

  1. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte says the government will ban people from entering and leaving Lombardy and surrounding provinces in northern Italy. The area includes Milan and Venice.
  2. The Japanese health minister says he expects the country’s capability to test people for the new coronavirus will top 7,000 a day by the end of this month.
  3. Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso has requested financial institutions to help smaller businesses tide over possible financial difficulties amid negative effects from the coronavirus outbreak.