Coronavirus: Real Madrid's basketball, football teams in quarantine

Real Madrid's basketball and football teams have been put in quarantine after a member of their basketball first team tested positive for coronavirus.

Along with this decision, the club also informed that the side's training ground has also been closed and a recommendation has been made that all Real Madrid's staff should be put under quarantine.

"The recommendation of remaining in quarantine has been followed with immediate effect, with this measure applied to both the basketball and football first teams, given that the two squads share the facilities at Real Madrid City," Real Madrid FC said in an official statement.

Now, the side's next week Champions League fixture against Manchester City has come under a cloud and it is up to the organisers whether to go on with the match or postpone it.

Earlier in the day, Spanish football league La Liga also announced the suspension of matches scheduled for March 28 and 29.

The World Health Organisation has declared the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2 as a pandemic, "We're deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction," the Director-General of WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a press conference.

The number of cases and deaths changes by the hour, 121,564 with at least 4,373 deaths across the world as of Wednesday morning, according to data by Johns Hopkins University.

Italy has surpassed South Korea to become the largest coronavirus hotbed outside China with more than 9,000 infections and over 400 deaths.