Stores all over the world are shutting down in light of the fears surrounding the Coronavirus. The pandemic has cross borders and officials are expecting it to get a lot worse in the coming weeks and months. With this in mind, Adidas decided to issue a statement yesterday in which they noted that stores will not be closing and that staying open requires great strength.
“We have to keep the company going and open for business to ensure that we can pay our monthly bills and salaries to everyone,” Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted wrote. “Closing down is easy, staying open in a healthy environment requires courage, persistence and focus."
According to Yahoo!, many Adidas employees were extremely upset about this decision and felt as though Adidas was being ignorant to the situation.
“It’s ridiculous and I’m outraged,” said an employee in New York. “Seeing Nike lead the way in the retail closings and seeing a lot of other companies follow suit, it’s extremely frustrating. They’re waiting for someone to force them to close instead of being proactive.”
Following this outrage, Adidas decided to cave and closed all of its stores in North America and Europe, at least until March 29th.
Eiffel Tower Closes Ahead Of Paris Coronavirus Shutdown
The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and the Palace of Versailles are among the Paris landmarks that have closed ahead of France’s coronavirus shutdown.
Paris landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre Museum, and the Palace of Versailles have closed their doors as France heads toward a country-wide shut down in an effort to eliminate coronavirus. After the government of France banned gatherings of more than 100 people at a time, tons of Paris’ most notable tourist attractions closed down indefinitely to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Eiffel Tower, France’s most famous landmark, officially closed “for an indefinite period of time” as of 9:00pm on Friday night. The Louvre Museum, which boasts the title of the world’s most visited museum with 9.6 million visitors last year, has also closed “until further notice” as of Friday.
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The Musée d’Orsay, which holds the world’s biggest collection of Impressionist paintings, followed suit. Both museums had initially restricted entry to 1,000 people at a time earlier this week, with the Louvre asking visitors to book their tickets online, but once the death toll had risen to 61 in France by Friday, they were forced to shut down entirely.The Louvre has also postponed two upcoming exhibitions: a show initially scheduled for May that was meant to showcase Italian sculpture from the likes of Donatello and Michelangelo. The Palace of Versailles, another major tourist attraction that averages nearly 10 million tourists a year, has also closed its doors. A number of other museums and attractions have also closed down, and public theatres, libraries and concert halls have also been told to close.
Coronavirus Postpones "A Quiet Place Part II" Release Date
John Krasinski, director, and star of “A Quiet Place II” took to Instagram to announce that he would be postponing the release of his film amid the coronavirus outbreak.
The coronavirus continues to impact the entertainment world. Joining the list of delays and pushbacks is A Quiet Place Part II, which was originally set to have its theatrical release on March 20th of this year. It has been just a few days since Krasinski and his wife, Emily Blunt, premiered the movie at the Lincoln Center in New York, New York, but due to the severity of the virus, Krasinski and his team have decided to postpone its release to theatres.
In a statement made on his personal Instagram page, Krasinski stated that his desire for fans to watch the film together motivated his decision. He admits that public health concerns would not permit the audience to comfortably view the film as a group. However, Krasinski seems to be in high spirits regardless of the unfortunate news. He’s still “insanely excited” to share the movie with us but is just choosing to do so once it’s safe for us to watch together.
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Krasinski’s film is not the first to postpone its release. The upcoming James Bond film, No Time To Die, was also meant to release this month but has since made the difficult decision to release in November 2020 instead.
The Quiet Place Part II announcement did not come with a new release date, as Krasinski, like the rest of us, is not sure when the world will no longer be in a state of emergency, and probably feels that its best not to make a decision too early.
Stephen A. Smith Breaks His Silence On NBA Shutdown
The Coronavirus has caused the NBA to completely suspend operations until further notice.
Last night featured a landmark decision from the NBA as they ultimately chose to end the season until further notice due to the Coronavirus. This decision was made due to the fact that Rudy Gobert was diagnosed with the virus. In fact, his teammate Donovan Mitchell ended up getting the bug, as well. It’s a scary situation that absolutely no one saw coming, even with reports of the virus ramping up. Now that the disease has reached pandemic levels, the hysteria surrounding it all has increased significantly.
Today on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman spoke about the virus and the NBA’s recent decision. As you can imagine, both men were pretty scared about it all but they were ultimately happy with the way the NBA chose to handle it. Stephen A. Smith was particularly complimentary of Adam Silver who took the swift action necessary.
Kellerman echoed those sentiments and noted that Silver’s leadership has always been top tier. Smith went on to say that the fact the NBA is suspending the season is encouraging because it leaves open the possibility of a return to form, later this year. Regardless, it’s a situation nobody was hoping for and as of right now, all we can do is wait.
Stay tuned for updates on the NBA’s latest shutdown as we will be sure to bring you all of the updates.