Coronavirus Update, March 09: Here's What You Need To Know Today

Markets across the world crashed as oil prices plummeted 20% after the OPEC failed to reach a deal on production cuts with its allies, and Saudi Arabia slashing prices. Oil prices were already down sharply as the world economy is slowly being choked by the novel coronavirus that is racing unchecked across the globe.

Dow futures pointed to a massive opening drop of more than 1,200 points Monday, signaling another week of bloodbath in the markets. Asian and European stocks were down sharply, with the Italian market down 11%, caused by panic from a massive quarantine that affects 16 million people.

In all COVID-19 has so far infected more than 110,000 people worldwide and killed more than 3,800, according to data maintained by the Johns Hopkins CSSE. Mainland China accounted for the bulk of those cases, with 80,735 confirmed COVID-19 infections and 3,120 deaths.

The novel coronavirus has also hit the U.S. hard, having been reported in 33 states -- with 564 confirmed cases and 22 deaths.

Amid the market turmoil, investors continued to seek safer assets amid fears that the coronavirus will disrupt global supply chains and tip the economy into a recession. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dropped below 0.5%, before seeing a slight recovery.

Mitigation phase: Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said the U.S. was "shifting into a mitigation phase" from the containment effort earlier. He also warned that the country will see "more deaths. But that doesn't mean that we should panic."

President Donald Trump defended the "perfectly coordinated" U.S. response to the coronavirus epidemic Sunday amid heavy criticism over health cuts and strategic blunders that have failed to stem the infection's rapid spread.

Oregon was the latest to declare a state of emergency Sunday, and 60 million people in California and New York states faced crisis measures. Two more deaths were reported in Washington state -- both linked to a virus-hit care home near Seattle.

But Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, criticized Trump on NBC, saying the president "hasn't communicated the way I would, and the way I might like him to." New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was more scathing, saying federal health authorities were "caught flat-footed" and had "handcuffed" the ability of individual states to respond to the virus.

Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., said he will close his office in Washington and will self-quarantine at home in Arizona. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that he will stay home in Texas this week because he had a brief interaction with a person attending CPAC who has tested positive. Gosar and Cruz said they were experiencing no symptoms but were acting out of caution.

The BNP Paribas Open became the largest sporting event in the U.S. to be called off over coronavirus concerns.

Racing unchecked across the globe: The virus continues to wreak havoc across the globe although the number of new infections has slowed in China, its epicenter. Outside of Hubei province, where the virus first originated late last year, China reported no new locally transmitted cases for the second straight day.

The most active global clusters for the virus outside of China continued to be South Korea and Italy, both with more than 7,000 confirmed infections; Iran with more than 6,500 infections, although the Iranians are suspected to be under-reporting the numbers; and France and Germany with more than a 1,000 confirmed cases. In South Korea too, infections appear to be slowing.