• Italy on Sunday put the northern region of Lombardy and 14 neighboring provinces at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak on lockdown.

• The restrictions impacted prisoners because it limited or suspended their ability to have family visits.

• Tension over this move, combined with the knowledge that they are closely packed and vulnerable to viruses like COVID-19, caused riots among inmates across the nation.

• Reports emerged of dozens of inmates escaping from custody while others set fire and clambered onto roofs to hang a sign saying "Indulto" or pardon in Italian.

• Six prisoners also broke into an infirmary where they overdosed on meth and died.

• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

At least 50 inmates escaped from an Italian prison between Sunday and Monday as tension over sweeping coronavirus restrictions triggered riots in 27 jails across the country.

During the commotion, another six inmates also died of a methadone overdose, the Associated Press reported.

The COVID-19 virus erupted in Wuhan, China, but Italy has been the hardest hit nation outside Asia. On Monday, the number of infections crossed 9,000 and another 463 people were reported dead. 

The government responded by cracking down in hopes of controlling the spread of the illness. On Monday, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte put the entire country on lockdown. Schools, museums, theaters, and swimming pools throughout the country are shut, and weddings and funerals have been suspended. Large public events have also been canceled, entire towns have been sealed off, and Italy's popular tourist destinations are deserted.

'You can't leave, and you're in a place where infectious diseases can spread critically'

Italy's prisons were overrun by protests when news emerged that family visits were suspended or limited, according to AP. Prisoners were feeling the stress of being packed into small, overcrowded spaces which put them at heightened risk, said Alessio Scandurra, of the Antigone Association, which lobbies for prisoner rights.

"In prisons in general, there's a lot of anxiety," he told AP. "You can't leave, and you're in a place where infectious diseases can spread critically. Obviously inmates know this very well."

In Modena, prisoners on Sunday took two guards hostage before swiping keys and trying to scale a fence to escape. They were thwarted by riot police, but had done enough damage to the prison itself that other inmates had to be relocated to temporary facilities, the Daily Beast reported.

It was also in Modena that six prisoners gained access to the prison infirmary where they overdosed on meth, which Donato Capece, secretary-general of the penitentiary police union, told AP is used to treat opioid dependence.

Inmates at a Pavia jail set mattresses ablaze, forcing a part of the building to be evacuated, and others at Milan's San Vittore prison attacked guards and climbed onto the roof in response to the city's closure. Perched there, a group held up a painted sheet reading "Indulto," which in Italian means pardon, AP reported.

Meanwhile, inmates at Rome-based Regina Coeli prison were heard shouting and clanging objects on the cell bars, the Daily Beast said. Outside, inmates' relatives protested after learning that only one person could go in to visit each person in jail, AP reported.

A group also set fire to the city's Rebibbia prison, allowing about 30 inmates to flee. Sirens pierced the air and helicopters hovered over the area, the Daily Beast said, adding that the prisoners have since been taken back into custody. There, too, relatives and prisoner advocates took to the streets and hung a banner declaring, "Free them all" on a police barricade.

Capece, who said that prisoners also ran away from a jail in Foggia, blames the Italian government for turning its back on the prison system.

"The administration is completely absent," he told AP. "They have left the penitentiary police in jeopardy."

• Read more:
• Italy's Prime Minister just placed the entire country on lockdown in a nation-wide extension of its coronavirus restriction zone
• The healthcare system in Italy's Lombardy region is so strained from the new coronavirus that officials are asking doctors to come out of retirement and nursing students are being fast-tracked to graduation
• The Louvre, Legoland, and three Disney theme parks are closed because of the coronavirus. Here's all of the major museum and theme park closures so far.
• The CDC is warning travelers about visiting 5 countries because of the coronavirus. Here's the US government's guidance.

Join the conversation about this story »

• This is a preview of The Telemental Health Report from Business Insider Intelligence.
• Purchase this report.
• Business Insider Intelligence offers even more healthcare coverage with Digital Health Pro. Subscribe today to receive industry-changing digital health news and analysis to your inbox.

The US is in the midst of a swelling mental health crisis that's expected to slam the healthcare system with $238 billion in costs in 2020.

Health systems and hospitals need to shore up defenses to prep for the ever growing number of patients with mental health conditions who are flooding into emergency departments (EDs) — which will only become more difficult to manage given that hospitals are contending with a thinning pool of psychiatrists. 

One way hospitals can more effectively triage patients and gain quicker access to mental health specialists when they need them is by equipping EDs with telemental health technology — which allows doctors to virtually connect with remote psychiatrists when patients come into the ED in need of a psychiatric consultation.

Telemental health solutions have helped hospitals better allocate a meager army of mental health specialists, pare down wait times for patients, and optimize the flow of patients in and out of ED beds. And it's offering them an entry point into a growing telemental health market that's projected to balloon to $747 million in the US in 2021 — more than triple its worth five years prior.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence explores how the onus of the US' mental health crisis falls on health systems and hospitals, and how they can navigate the costly dilemma via telemental health. We first dive into the challenges providers are presented with amid the crisis and how traditional mental health strategies are falling short in addressing them. We then take a look at how some early moving health systems developed telehealth strategies to address their hospitals' unique issues and outline some of the potential barriers to adoption.

Here are some of the key takeaways of this report: 

• Deploying telemental health presents cost-saving opportunities for hospitals by way of stretching out shrinking pools of psychiatrists, avoiding value-based care (VBC) penalties that arise from unnecessary patient readmissions, and tapping into a new market of patients.
• Health systems varying in size, location, and spending power differ in their approaches to telemental health: Some rely on the power of currently employed mental health specialists, while others tap into a new crop by partnering with third-party vendors. 
• We predict more health systems will turn to telemental health as the mental health crisis continues to swell and lay the pressure on EDs, but some barriers — like upfront costs and murky reimbursement policies — remain.

In full, the report: 

• Details the mental health crisis and how it's negatively impacting health systems and hospitals. 
• Explains how implementing telemental health can help hospitals better manage mental health patients and best make use of staff and resources.
• Outlines how three early moving health systems are deploying telemental health — and the opportunities it presents for others like them. 
• Considers what the future of telemental health looks like for health systems and what could impede and propel more widespread adoption. 

Want to learn more about the fast-moving world of digital health? Here's how to get access:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Sign up for Digital Health Pro , Business Insider Intelligence's expert product suite keeping you up-to-date on the people, technologies, trends, and companies shaping the future of healthcare, delivered to your inbox 6x a week. >>Get Started
3. Subscribe to a Premium pass to Business Insider Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report and more than 250 other expertly researched reports. As an added bonus, you'll also gain access to all future reports and daily newsletters to ensure you stay ahead of the curve and benefit personally and professionally. >>Learn More Now
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• The coronavirus outbreak may seem reminiscent of past global epidemics like SARS, MERS, swine flu, and the Zika virus.
• We looked at the data to see how those epidemics compare to the new coronavirus.
• While some of those examples were deadlier than the coronavirus, they were far more limited in scope.
• View more episodes of Business Insider Today on Facebook.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has raised concerns across the globe, with more than 113,000 confirmed cases worldwide.

But to some, the coronavirus outbreak is reminiscent of epidemics that have caused a panic in recent memory, including SARS, MERS, the Zika virus, and swine flu.

So how exactly does the coronavirus stack up to those epidemics?

For one, we know that the coronavirus outbreak is not as deadly as the SARS epidemic of 2003, which killed around 10% of the 8,098 confirmed cases of the respiratory illness.

And it's far less deadly than Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, which has killed around 34% of the roughly 2,500 confirmed cases since it was first reported in 2012 in Saudi Arabia.

However, both of those illnesses were far more contained than COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. There have been more than 113,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and it has a mortality rate of 3.4%, according to the latest data.

"It has been more widespread than SARS and MERS. More people are getting infected" Aria Bendix, a senior science reporter for Business Insider said. "But less of those people who are getting infected are actually dying from it."

The coronavirus outbreak is more severe than the 2009 outbreak of H1N1, or swine flu. That illness infected between 700 million and 1.4 billion people worldwide but only had a mortality rate of 0.02%.

And in 2015 and 2016, there were more than 500,000 suspected cases of the Zika virus, leading to 18 deaths. Zika has also been linked to a spike in the birth defect microcephaly.

But it's important to note that Zika is transmitted primarily through mosquitoes, while the coronavirus is spread through respiratory fluids such as saliva or mucus.

"That's why it's so important with this coronavirus to actually cover your mouth when you cough or cover your face when you sneeze, so that you aren't spreading it to other people," Bendix said.

While we don't know how widespread the outbreak will become, cases of the virus have started tapering off in China, where the strain originated.

"Those cases are going down. Fewer people are being infected there. And if other countries like the US, South Korea, Japan, can enforce some of the same containment measures, we could see their outbreaks taper off as well."

SEE ALSO: The Middle East is coping with the coronavirus by disinfecting mosques and canceling Muslim prayers

DON'T MISS: Shops in New York City's Chinatown are suffering losses of 50% because of coronavirus fears

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 myths about the coronavirus, including why masks won't help

• Classes are being held online across the US to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.
• The new coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China, and has killed about 3,900 people and infected more than 111,000 as of Monday.
• Some universities, like Rice, are shifting to virtual courses after a community member tested positive for the virus.
• Others, like Columbia University, are holding courses remotely for precautionary reasons.
• Here's are all the major colleges and universities that have switched to remote courses so far.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories

SEE ALSO: The Louvre, Legoland, and three Disney theme parks are closed because of the coronavirus. Here's all of the major museum and theme park closures so far.

DON'T MISS: From work to school to what's for dinner, everyday life in the US may drastically change in the wake of coronavirus

Columbia University in New York City canceled classes through Tuesday. After that, they will take place remotely for the rest of the week over concerns about the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

Source: The New York Times

Starting March 23, after its spring break, Princeton University will also hold classes virtually.

Source: The New York Times, Princeton University

After a faculty member tested positive for the virus, the University of Washington announced it will hold classes remotely for the rest of the semester. As of Monday, 19 people have died in Washington state from the coronavirus.

Source: The Washington Post 

Over in Houston, Rice University canceled in-person classes for the rest of the week after staff member tested positive for the virus. It also banned meetings of more than 100 people until May.

Source: Texas Tribune

At Stanford University in California, classes will take place online for the rest of the quarter over concerns about the outbreak.

Source: The New York Times 

Read More:

Coronavirus live updates: More than 100,000 people have been infected and more than 3,400 have died. The US has reported 14 deaths. Here's everything we know.

The US has reported 14 coronavirus deaths among more than 240 cases. Here's what we know about the US patients.

Twitter and Amazon are among 31 of the largest global companies who have restricted travel or asked their employees to work remotely as a precaution against the novel coronavirus. Here's the full list.

• Finix, a startup that enables other startups to manage their payments stack in-house, announced that one of its investors was walking away, returning its equity and board seat to the company. 
• Sequoia Capital had led the payments startup's Series B round in February, in which Finix raised $35 million, but later told Finix that it realized it had a conflict of interest: The fintech was competing with at least one existing portfolio company. 
• Finix's services allow firms to bring a payments system in-house, allowing companies to avoid building their own system or outsourcing it entirely to startups like the $35 billion payments giant Stripe (which is backed by Sequoia)
• Sequoia did not reclaim the funds it originally invested in Finix, allowing the startup to use those funds to raise an additional $10 million. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Finix, a startup that enables other startups to manage their payments stack in-house, announced on its website that one of its investors was walking away from its original investment, returning its equity and board seat to the company. 

Sequoia Capital led the payments startup's Series B round in February, in which Finix raised $35 million, but later told Finix that it uncovered a conflict of interest: The fintech was competing with at least one existing portfolio company. 

But Sequoia didn't reclaim its original investment in Finix, reportedly leaving the company behind with $21 million, according to TechCrunch's Connie Loizos. 

Finix used those funds to raise an additional $10 million in a round led by Inspired Capital, boosting its total funds raised to over $60 million, the announcement said. And two new members will be joining the company board: former US Secretary of Commerce and current PSP Partners Chairman Penny Pritzker, and Inspired Capital founding partner Alexa von Tobel, who will join the board as an observer.

"We're thrilled to have Penny and Alexa's guidance and support as we enter our next phase of growth – they see the large market potential of our company," said Finix CEO Richie Serna in the announcement. 

Competition with Sequoia's existing portfolio companies 

Finix's services allow firms to avoid building their own payments system or outsourcing it entirely to a startup like the $35 billion, Sequoia-backed Stripe. That competition appears to have played a role in prompting Sequoia to walk away from its investment. 

Finix's announcement quoted Sequoia partner Pat Grady in explaining its decision to leave. Grady said that the VC originally made a mistake in thinking that the payments startup did not compete with any of Sequoia's existing portfolio companies. 

"While we'd previously concluded that Finix was not a direct competitor to any existing portfolio companies, after making the investment we came across a variety of small data points that collectively painted a different picture of the market," Grady explained. "This decision had nothing to do with Finix, and everything to do with Sequoia's desire to honor our commitments."

The competition between Finix and Stripe has grown more heated just days after Sequoia's initial investment in the company. Software company Lightspeed, an existing Finix client, announced a new partnership with Stripe in February. At the time, Lightspeed declined to confirm what partners it would depend on for different types of transactions. 

SEE ALSO: A partner at Silicon Valley's most important startup mentorship program explains how founders can impress investors and nail their Series A pitch

Join the conversation about this story »

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• Events are being canceled and postponed around the globe to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, which originated in Wuhan, China, and has killed at least 3,900 people and infected more than 111,000.
• South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual media festival in Austin, Texas, was canceled on March 6 due to the outbreak.
• Many other noteworthy events, from conferences to festivals to sporting events, have been canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus, including Facebooks's annual F8 conference and the World Athletics Indoor Championships.
• Here's a round-up of major events that have been canceled or postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak so far.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

This is a developing story, check back for updates.

SXSW was cancelled on March 6 over concerns about the spread of the coronavirus.

Source: Business Insider

Adobe cancelled its annual live summit because of growing concerns about the coronavirus. Instead, the entire event will take place online.

Source: Adobe

REV'd Up Media Summit will also take place online to prevent the spread of the virus.

Source: Rev

HIMSS, a health-technology conference in Orlando was also canceled.

Source: CNBC

Several major corporate conferences have been canceled or postponed because of the outbreak, including F8, Facebook's annual conference for developers. F8 is Facebook's biggest event of the year, and it's set to be replaced with local events and live-streamed content.

Source: Business Insider

Facebook also canceled its annual Global Marketing Summit in San Francisco, which was supposed to host 5,000 people.

Source: Vox

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which is the biggest smartphone conference of the year, was canceled after major companies including LG, Amazon, Sony, Ericsson, Facebook, Nvidia, MediaTek, Sprint, and Vivo pulled out of the event because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Source: Business Insider

Workday's annual internal sales conference is going to be a virtual event, as the in-person conference was canceled due to the outbreak.

Source: Business Insider

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Fransisco was canceled because of the outbreak after major companies like Sony and Microsoft pulled out of the event.

Source: Vice

EmTech Asia, a conference in Singapore about business and technology, has been postponed to August because of growing concerns about the coronavirus.

Source: EmTech Asia/Twitter

Google News Initiative Global Summit, Google's annual news conference, was canceled because of the outbreak.

Source: CBS News

The Trump administration postponed the ASEAN Summit in Las Vegas, which connects the leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian nations.

Source: Inc., CBS News

Shopify canceled its annual developer conference, Unite, because of the outbreak.

Source: Financial Post

Semi, which is a global organization that includes companies that are vendors of semiconductor production systems and materials, canceled its Semicon conventions in Korea and China due to concerns about the coronavirus.

Source: EE Times

It's not just conferences that are getting canceled and postponed — Tokyo's famous cherry blossom festival was canceled because of the outbreak ...

Source: The Points Guy

... and so was Okinawa's Azalea Festival.

Source: Okinawa Stripes

Ultra Music Festival, which takes place in July in Miami, was also cancelled due to growing concerns about the coronavirus.

Source: Variety

Venice authorities canceled the last two days of the historic Venice carnival because of the outbreak.

Source: Business Insider

Several St. Patricks Day parades across Ireland were canceled due to the outbreak.

Source: BBC

Several fashion shows for Paris and Milan's fashion weeks were canceled, including Giorgio Armani's.

Source: The Guardian, The Cut, WWD

Meanwhile, the Shanghai fashion week will still go on, but instead of in-person with a live audience, the event will be live-streamed online because of concerns about the coronavirus.

Source: US News

The outbreak is affecting sporting events too. Formula One's Chinese Grand Prix has been postponed because of the outbreak.

Source: Business Insider

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) canceled three tournaments in Asia because of concerns about the coronavirus ...

Source: Reuters

... and the Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour Series-China was canceled altogether.

Source: Reuters

Similarly, the World Athletics Indoor Championships will be postponed until 2021 because of the outbreak.

Source: Reuters

The Dalai Lama has canceled all upcoming public events indefinitely because of the outbreak.

Source: The New York Times

Read More:

Coronavirus live updates: More than 100,000 people have been infected and more than 3,400 have died. The US has reported 14 deaths. Here's everything we know.

The US has reported 14 coronavirus deaths among more than 240 cases. Here's what we know about the US patients.

Twitter and Amazon are among 31 of the largest global companies who have restricted travel or asked their employees to work remotely as a precaution against the novel coronavirus. Here's the full list.

• The coronavirus outbreak that originated in China has killed 3,900 people worldwide and infected more than 111,000, according to recent totals.
• The coronavirus, which causes a disease known as COVID-19, has spread to at least 86 other countries, though most cases are concentrated in China.
• Schools across China have been closed since the Lunar New Year, and some have implemented online learning. 
• To get out of classes, some students learned that if they gave enough low ratings to their remote learning app they could get it kicked off the App Store, according to the London Review of Books. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has totally disrupted daily life in much of China. Many schools and workplaces are closed, large gatherings are banned, and more than half of the country's population is under quarantine, but children in Wuhan showed that kids will always figure out a way to get out of school, the London Review of Books reported.

The worldwide death toll of the coronavirus disease that originated in Wuhan, China, is now more than 3,900, and the virus has infected more than 111,000 people, mostly in China. On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared it a global health emergency. The virus has disrupted travel worldwide, leading to flight cancellations, quarantines, and other breakdowns in movement. On Monday, WHO officials said the virus had nearly reached pandemic proportions.

It's now on every continent except Antarctica. The US has reported more than 600 cases and 23 deaths, and the CDC has said that there are likely to be more US cases in the near future.

In response, many companies have told employees to work from home, San Francisco banned large events, and some school districts have suspended classes. In China, students in Wuhan whose schools were closed figured out that they could swarm the reviews on their remote-learning app to get it removed from the App Store, effectively evading their classwork.

Here's what happened. 

SEE ALSO: These robots are fighting the coronavirus in China by disinfecting hospitals, taking temperatures, and preparing meals

COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China, and the city was put on lockdown on January 23 in an attempt to contain the virus.

Classes across China did not resume as planned after the Lunar New Year. Instead, nearly 200 million children started taking online classes.

Classes were conducted using a remote learning app, DingTalk. On the first day back, DingTalk had 50 million student users, and 600,000 teachers.

Source: TechNode

Children across China realized that they could get DingTalk kicked off of the App Store if it had a low rating, so in a mass effort they gave the app one star reviews.

Analytics firm App Annie found that DingTalk received more than 15,000 one-star reviews on February 11. Days later, five-star reviews started pouring in from users angry at the kids for the low ratings.

Source: TechNode

Kids were able to drop the app's rating from 4.9 to 1.4 overnight, and DingTalk was forced to plead with them to stop on social media, posting "I'm only five years old myself, please don't kill me."

Source: London Review of Books

DingTalk is owned by ecommerce giant Alibaba, and has been compared to Slack, another workplace messaging app.

Source: Reuters

• Elon Musk said college is "not for learning" and that you can basically learn anything you want to for free.
• During a Q&A at the Satellite 2020 conference on Monday, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said he wants to make sure Tesla recruitment doesn't require a college degree, and that "ideally, you dropped out and did something."
• He pointed to Microsoft's Bill Gates, Apple's Steve Jobs, and Oracle's Larry Ellison as examples of people who dropped out of college and ended up being highly successful. 
• Musk has a bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania but dropped out of a Ph.D. program at Stanford University to launch his first company, Zip2, which later netted him $22 million after it sold. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk says he doesn't think a college degree means you have "exceptional ability."

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO shared his views on college during a fireside chat on Monday at the Satellite 2020 conference. During the audience Q&A portion, Musk was asked how colleges and industries can make it easier for students to afford college, as well as create more access for underprivileged students. 

Musk said that "you don't need college to learn stuff," and that knowledge is available basically for free. He described college as a bunch of "annoying homework assignments" and said one of the main values of attending college is spending time with people your own age before joining the workforce.

"I think colleges are basically for fun and to prove you can do your chores, but for they're not for learning," Musk said, which was followed by applause and a few laughs.

Musk said he wants to make sure Tesla's recruiting material doesn't have anything that says the company requires a college degree, calling it "absurd." Indeed, he expressed his admiration for people like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Apple's Steve Jobs, and Oracle's Larry Ellison, all of whom dropped out of college to start their own companies.

"But there is a requirement of 'evidence of exceptional ability.' I don't consider going to college evidence of exceptional ability," Musk said. "In fact, ideally, you dropped out and did something. If you look at like, you know, Gates is a pretty smart guy, he dropped out. Jobs, pretty smart, he dropped out. Larry Ellison, smart guy, he dropped out. Like, obviously not needed. Did Shakespeare even go to college? Probably not. "

Musk has said in the past that he thinks degrees from prestigious universities are overrated. In January, he answered "Yes" on Twitter when asked whether he didn't require potential employees to have a college degree. And in a 2014 interview with German automotive publication Auto Bild, he also pointed to Gates, Jobs, and Ellison as successful examples of people who dropped out. 

For his part, Musk does have a prestigious degree. He spent two years studying at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania where he earned degrees in physics and economics. (He opened up in 2019 about graduating with about $100,000 in student debt.) 

Musk did, however, drop out of a Ph.D. program at Stanford University after only two days in California, opting to launch his first company, Zip2, instead. Clearly, it paid off: he made $22 million when Zip2 sold to Compaq in 1999.

SEE ALSO: Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have feuded for over a decade about space travel. Here are 9 rivalries between some of the world's biggest tech CEOs.

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• Amazon announced on Monday that it will start selling its cashierless store technology used in Amazon Go stores to other retailers.
• But retail experts told Business Insider that Amazon still hasn't answered some important questions about its new service.
• It's still unclear how exactly Amazon plans to use the shopping data it collects or how it will protect personal data, experts say.
• The biggest question, however, may be just how useful cashierless technology really is.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon said on Monday it will start selling the cashierless store technology it uses in its Amazon Go stores to other retailers. 

Called "Just Walk Out" technology, the system allows shoppers to buy things without having to check out and pay with a cashier. Instead, shoppers just enter the store, pick whatever they want off store shelves, and walk out of the store — and their credit card is automatically charged.

While the new technology is generating lots of buzz because of its wow-factor, retail experts say there are still some major unanswered questions that Amazon needs to address if it wants other retailers to adopt the technology. These are the main questions about Amazon's cashierless store tech that could determine how soon it turns up at your local corner store:

How does Amazon plan to use the shopping data it collects?

Amazon said on Monday that it's only collecting the data needed "to provide shoppers with an accurate receipt." But it didn't specify how exactly it's going to use other more sensitive data it collects. That includes not just purchase data, but also in-store shopper behavior and inventory levels throughout the day that retailers don't like to share with others, much less a competitor like Amazon.

Stephen Beck, managing partner of business consultancy cg42, told Business Insider that it's important to know what kind of "wall" Amazon is putting between the team that runs the cashierless system and the rest of the company. Without clear guidance on this issue, most major retailers will have misgivings about using the technology.

"If I were a retailer, this is the question that would be top of mind because I wouldn't want to give Amazon more intelligence than they already have," said Beck. "They've only answered it through the lens of the consumers — they have not answered it through the lens of the retailer."

In an email to Business Insider, Amazon's spokesperson said, "Amazon prohibits the use of Just Walk Out technology data for anything other than supporting Just Walk Out retailers."

Who will be the first major retailer to adopt the technology?

Amazon told Reuters that it signed "several" deals with retailers for this technology, but declined to name any of them. 

The name of the first large scale retailer to adopt Amazon's cashierless store system is important because it would serve as a "proof of concept" for other retailers that are on the fence about it, according to Tom Forte, an analyst at D.A. Davidson. Just like Netflix was the "poster child" of a company willing to use Amazon's cloud service early on, a well-known retailer would need to adopt Amazon's cashierless technology to make others more comfortable using it, he said.

"It's dual proof of concept that the technology could work for someone other than Amazon, and then proof of concept that another retailer would trust Amazon with that incremental level of data sharing," Forte said.

Forte said Kohl's would be a good candidate to test it early on, given the retailer's existing partnership with Amazon. Kohl's currently accepts Amazon returns at its stores, and has tested Amazon-branded pop-up stores in the past. Other convenience stores would be a natural fit to try Amazon's new technology too, Forte said, as Amazon Go started out in a smaller convenience store format.

How does Amazon plan to sell it?

Amazon didn't share how much the service would cost, or how exactly it plans to implement the technology in other stores.

Those are important questions to answer because this technology involves more customization and local services that don't easily scale as cloud services. For example, if the in-store system breaks down, Amazon would need service reps who are able to fix the issue right away. For remote areas, Amazon may want to use a subcontractor to install the system. Other questions, like whether the system will run through the cloud or on-premise software, haven't been answered either. Depending on how Amazon decides to sell this, the price and deployment time would vary.

"This is somewhat new ground for Amazon," Rick Watson, CEO of RMW Commerce Consulting told Business Insider. "The level of per-store customization could be higher than expected."

What about the states that ban cashless stores?

Several cities and states, including New Jersey and Philadelphia, have recently banned cashless stores, saying it discriminates against the unbanked population who typically come from lower income households. In response, Amazon has started accepting cash at its Go stores.

It's unclear whether Amazon will help retailers looking to adopt its cashierless technology in regions that ban cashless stores. In an email statement to Business Insider, Amazon's representative said, "cash acceptance is up to the retailer who runs the store."

Who's responsible for protecting personal data?

Given the scale and scope of personal data collected in systems like Amazon's cashierless stores, it's important to establish clear personal data rules, according to Leonard Lee, managing director of neXt Curve, a business advisory firm. 

For instance, Amazon needs to set clear guidelines for who's responsible for protecting personal data, and strict rules that comply with regulations and state requirements. That would include options for opting out and the right to be forgotten from Amazon's Just Walk Out systems, Lee said.

"There is the question of liability —  What is the governance model that needs to be in place and agreed upon before signing on the dotted line?" said Lee.

Is the cashierless experience really that valuable?

The biggest question, however, may come down to this: Does cashierless technology really matter?

Beck, at cg42, said the technology feels more like a "solution looking for a problem," as it doesn't dramatically improve the shopping experience. He said the demand for Amazon's Just Walk Out technology may not be as high because it doesn't create a completely "different paradigm" around the consumer.

"It's more gimmick quite honestly than fundamentally disrupting the retail experience," Beck said.

Amazon may need to spend more resources promoting the technology and educating retailers about the real benefits of the technology, especially if the installation cost is high. Retailers will want to know whether consumers really care about killing the check out line, and whether it's a "revenue and profit enhancer" for the stores using it, neXt Curve's Lee said.

"The question remains how valuable this experience is to consumers," he said.

SEE ALSO: A leaked recording of an Amazon retail executive sheds light on its vision for physical stores and the future of retail

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• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently told analysts that the company won't be affected by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak because it's built to withstand recessions and crises like this one. 
• Salesforce is now also urging many of its employees in areas affected by coronavirus to work from home and is suspending non-essential travel for its roughly 50,000 employees around the world in order to be safe.
• Despite Benioff's reassurances, the company is aware it might be affected by the coronavirus in the long term. 
• In its latest annual filing, Salesforce outlined four ways in which the company might be adversely impacted by coronavirus in the long term. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff said on the company's latest call with analysts that the company won't be affected by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak. He said the company he built with co-founder Parker Harris was built to withstand recessions and crises like this one. 

Since then, the situation has increased in severity, with many new cases being reported in the US. This has prompted Salesforce to encourage its employees in the Seattle area, the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City to work from home through the end of March. The company will also continue to pay its hourly workers who might see a reduction in work due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Even before then, Salesforce had already suspended non-essential travel for its roughly 50,000 employees around the world and enhancing "office protocols" in order to be safe. 

When Benioff addressed the impact of coronavirus on the company, he said that, if bookings are slightly up or down between quarters, the company has enough reserves and a strong enough business model to withstand it. 

"93% of our revenue is deferred, so that just gives us tremendous visibility into the future," he said, describing the company's model of subscription software as a "key architecture of our accounting" that illustrates "our deep contractual multi-year relationships with our customers," Benioff recently told analysts. 

Nonetheless, the company is preparing to possibly see some impact on its business due to the outbreak. While these are all speculative scenarios, Salesforce mentioned several potential effects from coronavirus, including those they can't yet predict, in its most recent 10-K report. 

Here are the four ways in which Salesforce thinks it might be hurt by coronavirus in the long term: 

SEE ALSO: Meet the 21 rising stars at Salesforce who are playing key roles in helping CEO Marc Benioff grow the cloud computing powerhouse

Weakened global economic conditions could impact business and operations

One factor that could impact Salesforce is the broader economic and geopolitical landscape. Things like the coronavirus outbreak increases political and economic unpredictability globally and increases the volatility of global financial markets, Salesforce said. 

Markets around the world have fallen significantly since the coronavirus outbreak started. Additionally, businesses are being much more cautious about attending events and what technology they need to be spending money on. 

"These conditions can affect the rate of IT spending and could adversely affect our customers' ability or willingness to attend our events or to purchase our enterprise cloud computing services, delay prospective customers' purchasing decisions, reduce the value or duration of their subscription contracts, or affect attrition rates, all of which could adversely affect our future sales and operating results," Salesforce wrote in a filing. 

If businesses choose to be more conservative with their spending, Salesforce thinks it could impact the company's ability to sign on new customers or retain existing customers. 

Additionally, Salesforce is trying to expand its global footprint, and sign on more international businesses. But the coronavirus outbreak is a potential challenge there, as well, the company says.

Disruptions to cloud computing platforms, which could affect Salesforce

As a provider of cloud software, Salesforce relies on a few different cloud computing vendors to run its software. It currently has contracts with all three of the major cloud computing vendors: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. 

It also hosts some of its services from its own data centers, but Salesforce noted in its filing that it is increasingly relying on third-party systems.

"We also rely on computer hardware purchased or leased from, software licensed from, and cloud computing platforms provided by, third parties in order to offer our services," Salesforce wrote.

The company noted that the coronavirus could disrupt the supply chain of hardware needed to maintain these third-party systems that Salesforce runs its business on. A lot of that hardware has supply chains in China, where the outbreak started, and is subsequently impacting business operations in affected regions. 

"Any disruption or damage to, or failure of our systems generally, including the systems of our third-party platform providers, could result in interruptions in our services," Salesforce wrote in the filing. "In addition, the ongoing Coronavirus epidemic could potentially disrupt the supply chain of hardware needed to maintain these third-party systems or to run our business. As we increase our reliance on these third-party systems, our exposure to damage from service interruptions may increase." 

Salesforce notes that those interruptions in service could cause the company to issue credits or pay penalties to customers who are impacted. Additionally, it could cause Salesforce's customers to cancel subscriptions or make warranty claims against it. Any of those situations could reduce Salesforce's revenue if it happened.

Impact may not be felt until the future due to a subscription-based business model

Salesforce employs a subscription-based business model, which means many of their customers have signed long, multi-year contracts. That also means that if there is an impact on the company, it may not see it until the future. 

"At this point, the extent to which the Coronavirus may impact our financial condition or results of operations is uncertain. Due to our subscription based business model, the effect of the Coronavirus may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods, if at all," Salesforce wrote in the filing. 

The company is also acknowledging that it could see no impact from the virus, but that it's too early to tell what could happen. 

Changes to customer, employee or industry events

One way that Salesforce might feel the impact sooner is via changes to conferences it hosts or attends.

Like many other companies, Salesforce recently made its annual conference in Australia, an online-only event. It is also planning to make all customer events in the month of March, online experiences. 

In the filing, it added that "we may deem it advisable to similarly alter, postpone or cancel entirely additional customer, employee or industry events in the future." However, the company notes that the impact of this on the business is "uncertain and cannot be predicted."

These events are key for Salesforce to announce new technology and interact with their customers, in order to retain them and attract new ones. Cancelling the events or making them online-only could impact the company's ability to sign on new customers.

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• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend hand washing as one of the most effective ways to protect yourself from communicable diseases, but if that's not an option, using hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol is a good alternative.
• Here are the most effective hand sanitizers including Purell, Equate, and Pharma C.
• This article was medically reviewed by Tania Elliott, MD, who specializes in infectious diseases related to allergies and immunology for internal medicine at NYU Langone Health. 
• Due to fears of the new coronavirus, many of these products are quickly selling out or appearing at prices well above market retail. We're doing our best to keep this guide updated with in-stock purchase links.
• Read more: The best hand soaps

Commonly touched surfaces like door handles, shopping carts, phones, faucets, remote controls, and more harbor billions of potentially harmful microbes. This can be amplified during cold and flu season and viral outbreaks, making clean hands even more essential. 

To help kill all those microbes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend washing your hands with soap and water several times a day, spending at least 20 seconds lathering your hands, including the back of your hands as well as underneath your fingernails. We have a buying guide to the best hand soaps here, but it goes beyond the proper soap — 97% of people aren't washing their hands effectively. Here's a great how-to as well as a list of songs you can sing besides "Happy Birthday" to hit the 20-second threshold. 

But if you're in a situation where you can't easily wash your hands, then hand sanitizers are a viable option. 

The key to making these microbes inactive is to use a sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Alcohol-free sanitizers that rely on other ingredients are not effective in killing the type of germs that can cause norovirus and coronavirus.

It's also essential to use hand sanitizer correctly. Use at least a quarter-sized dollop of the sanitizer or enough to completely cover your hands each time. Rub it in well until your hands are dry — don't wipe it off. If your hands are greasy or heavily soiled, sanitizer alone will not be effective. Dr. Tania Elliott suggests wiping your hands off with a paper towel or rinsing with water if that's available before doing a double application of hand sanitizer. This helps it penetrate the grime so the sanitizer can be effective.

Due to fears of the new coronavirus, many of these products are quickly selling out or appearing at prices well above market retail. We're doing our best to keep this guide updated with in-stock purchase links.

Here are the best hand sanitizers you can buy:

• Best hand sanitizer overall: Purell Advanced Aloe Scent Hand Sanitizer
• Best hand sanitizing wipes: Pharma C Alcohol Wipes
• Best non-alcohol sanitizer wipes:Purell Fresh Scent Sanitizing Wipes
• Best hand sanitizer for dry skin: Highmark Advanced Hand Sanitizer, Aloe
• Best budget hand sanitizer: Equate Hand Sanitizer with Aloe

Updated 3/10/20: Prices and links are accurate as of 3/10/20.

The best hand sanitizer overall

Purell Advanced Aloe Scent Hand Sanitizer contains 70% ethyl alcohol and is 99.9% effective in killing germs to help protect your hands.

Purell, a leading brand in hand sanitizing products, is used in many hospitals and medical clinics. This Purell gel formulation contains 70% ethyl alcohol as well as aloe, vitamin E, and other moisturizers to prevent excessive drying of the skin on our hands.

The high level of alcohol kills germs quickly and the solution is 99.9% effective in killing the contagious microbes. The formula is free of parabens, phthalates, and preservatives that can cause skin irritation.  

I have sensitive skin and find that it does not cause excessive drying or result in itching or redness after use.

According to the price-tracking site CamelCamelCamel, a 4-pack of 8-ounce pump bottles on Amazon cost a little under $7 in August 2017 and $23 at the end of February 2020 if the order was fulfilled by the company. But due to news of the novel coronavirus, items fulfilled by Amazon have sold out and the prices for products fulfilled by third-party sellers have gone up significantly — the highest price as of publishing time for this item was $120, and the price at the end of February was $60.

Stock is low at many online stores, including Office Depot where it's currently sold out, but you can put yourself on a waitlist to be notified when it's back. A 3-pack is currently available at Walmart for a little under $13, which is more expensive than expected but not outrageously so. Staples also has some availability for an eco-friendly version at a little under $9 per 8-ounce pump bottle, which is considerably more expensive than usual.

Pros: Contains 70% ethyl alcohol, 99.9% effective in killing germs, contains moisturizing ingredients, light aloe scent, available in a pump bottle

Cons: More expensive than other sanitizers

The best hand sanitizing wipes

Pharma C Alcohol Wipes are large enough to thoroughly sanitize your hands with 70% isopropyl alcohol.

If you have ever had a flu shot, your arm was wiped down with a small alcohol wipe to remove bacteria from your skin. Pharma C Alcohol Wipes are a larger version that can sanitize your hands.

Measuring around 5.5 x 7 inches, the woven wipe is saturated with a 70% isopropyl alcohol and purified water solution. Presented in a canister with a pop-up lid, the wipes will stay moist if the lid is closed tightly.

I feel very confident when using these wipes that my hands are as germ-free as they can be. The big downside is that alcohol alone with no other buffers can be very drying to skin.

The usual price for this looks to be around $20 on Walmart, which is one of the more reputable sites that still have these wipes. However, due to news of the novel coronavirus, the price has gone up significantly and stock comes in and out at Walmart.

At the time of updating, it's currently back in stock at around $85, which is a highly marked-up price. If you're inclined to buy at this price, know that it's FSA-eligible.

Pros: Wipes contain 70% isopropyl alcohol, resealable canister, made in the USA

Cons: Very drying to the skin, strong alcohol odor

The best non-alcohol sanitizer wipes

While not as effective as an alcohol-based sanitizer, Purell Fresh Scent Sanitizing Wipes can help kill germs while still being gentle enough to use on your face.

If alcohol-based sanitizers are too harsh and drying, Purell Fresh Scent Sanitizing Wipes can help kill common germs until you can get to a sink for handwashing.

I have a two-year-old grandson and he loves to share every germ he picks up as he explores the world. It just isn't always convenient to wash his hands after he touches every surface in every store or play area, and alcohol-based wipes or gels can be rough on his skin. That's why I keep a resealable pack of Purell wipes with us to clean his hands and face until we can do a more thorough job with soap and water later. 

The wipes measure 6 x 7-inch and have been tested by dermatologists. They contain moisturizers but no dyes, parabens phthalates, or alcohol so they won't wreck delicate skin. The solution instead contains benzalkonium chloride, an antimicrobial that kills most common germs that may cause illness. However, the CDC still recommends alcohol-based wipes as they're more effective.

The sub-$5 price is about right for the product, but it's currently out of stock for delivery on Office Depot as well as most other online stores, including Amazon, due to news of the novel coronavirus. It's limited to 12 cans of wipes per person, and you can put yourself on a waitlist to be notified when it's back.

You might be able to find the wipes online at Target stores, but you'd have to confirm whether the items can be shipped to your zip code. If you're looking to buy in bulk, at the time of updating, Staples has a 6-pack of 270-count wipes for $132 though inventory is going fast.

Pros: Antimicrobial, no harsh ingredients, the package is resealable

Cons: Not as effective as an alcohol wipe

The best hand sanitizer for dry skin

Highmark Advanced Hand Sanitizer, Aloe helps kills germs with 65% ethyl alcohol while aloe and vitamin E protect your skin.

If you need a hand sanitizer that won't dry out hands, Highmark Advanced Hand Sanitizer, Aloe is a perfect choice. The large 32-ounce pump bottle makes it convenient to accommodates lots of dirty and sensitive or dry hands.

Highmark is an effective hand sanitizer with 65% ethyl alcohol, but the addition of aloe and vitamin E helps keep hands soft and moisturized. The aloe also leaves behind a light, fresh scent.

The $8 price sounds normal for this product especially when it's such a large bottle, but it's currently out of stock for delivery at the time of updating, though you may find it in stores. When the item comes back in stock online, shoppers will be limited to ordering four bottles each.

Pros: Effectively kills bacteria, contains moisturizers, light scent, large pump bottle

Cons: Only available at Office Depot or Office Max

The best budget hand sanitizer

A large bottle of Equate Hand Sanitizer with Aloe can help kill germs without wrecking your wallet.

Walmart is a great place to save money on bulk household supplies, and its in-house brand of hand sanitizer, Equate Hand Sanitizer with Aloe, is a great budget buy. Made with 62% ethyl alcohol, moisturizing aloe, and vitamin E, it meets the requirements of an effective hand sanitizer outlined by the CDC while still preventing excessively dry skin. 

The downside is that the large 60-ounce bottle is a squeeze bottle, not a pump, so it's not as convenient as the Highmark and can be hard for kids and mature hands to pick up and use effectively. 

At a little under $4 for a 32-ounce bottle, and under $6 for a 60-ounce, and under $8 for two, this doesn't seem to be marked up. Online inventory is currently unavailable at the time of updating, but you might be able to find this in stores since it's Walmart's in-house brand. You might have luck checking the site every so often too, we saw availability yesterday morning but the items seem to have sold out within an hour or two.  There are no current limits to how much shoppers can purchase if inventory becomes available online. You can put yourself on a waitlist to be notified when it's back. 

Pros: Budget-friendly, effectively kills microbes, contains moisturizers

Cons: Squeeze top

Check out our other cleaning guides

The best hand soaps

Washing your hands with soap and water is the single best way to prevent the spread of viral illnesses like colds and the flu, and it's the best way to keep bacteria from entering your body. Plain soap is fine — according to the FDA, there is no data to prove that anti-bacterial soaps are more effective than regular soaps. Here are the best hand soaps.

The best disinfecting cleaners

With the rise of infection from cold and flu viruses, protecting your family is more crucial than ever. While there isn't just one product that will easily disinfect everything in your home, we've put together the best disinfecting cleaners for everything from clothes to counters and athletic gear. Here are the best disinfecting cleaners.

• Google has advised all of its 100,000-plus employees in North America to work remotely in response to coronavirus concerns, the company confirmed to Business Insider.
• Google had previously instructed its offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Dublin, and Seattle to avoid coming into the office.
• The majority of Google's worldwide employees are based in North America, and the policy change represents one of the most sweeping remote-work orders of any company to date.
• The company is the latest in a string of tech giants, including Apple and Microsoft, to advise its employees to avoid coming into the office, though it appears.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Google is recommending that all of its tens of thousands of North American employees work from home, its latest move to try and protect its employees from the growing coronavirus outbreak.

On Tuesday, the Silicon Valley-based search giant sent out a memo to its workforce informing that it was now changing its policies to recommend all workers who are able to work remotely do so until at least April 10, sources familiar with the matter said. A Google spokesperson confirmed the order via email.

The majority of Google's 100,000-plus employees are based in North America, and the policy change represents one of the most sweeping remote-work orders of any company to date in response to the outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. (Google's offices will remain open to accommodate those workers who are only able to do their roles from the office.)

COVID-19 has sickened more than 113,000 people and killed nearly 4,000, and is causing mounting disruption around the globe — disrupting supply chains and forcing the closure of corporate offices and major events.

Many major US tech companies have instituted remote work policies for at least some of their employees, including Apple and Facebook. Industry events including Mobile World Congress, Facebook's F8, and Google I/O have been canceled, and on Friday, the SXSW tech and culture festival in Austin, Texas, was also canceled.

Google's latest move comes after it previously gave its employees in the San Francisco Bay Area, where it is headquartered, the option of working from home. Last week, it also barred all of its employees from traveling internationally after an employee in its Zurich office tested positive for the coronavirus.

Do you work at Google or Alphabet and have a story to share? Contact this reporter using a nonwork device via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). PR pitches by standard email only, please.

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• Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency in New York as the number of coronavirus cases surged.
• As of Tuesday, there were at least 173 confirmed cases statewide, with 36 in New York City. 
• 108 of those cases were reported in Westchester County, which is north of the city.
• Cuomo has accused the CDC of responding to the outbreak too slowly and is making efforts to ramp up testing statewide. 
• Thousands of people are self-quarantining, schools are shutting down, and more and more people are working from home.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

At least 173 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in New York state, with 36 cases confirmed in New York City. 

On Saturday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency to speed up the government's ability to purchase supplies and hire healthcare workers to aid in the monitoring of thousands of self-quarantined patients. 

As cases surged over the weekend, Cuomo accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of responding too slowly to the outbreak and not approving of enough testing centers.

"CDC, wake up. Let the states test. Let private labs test. Let's increase as quickly as possible our testing capacity so we can identify the positive people," he said. "Not to be using this laboratory, not to be using the other private labs around the state makes no sense whatsoever."

A growing number of schools are shutting down throughout the city, thousands are self-quarantining, and people are increasingly being encouraged to work from home.

Here's how New York is responding to the coronavirus outbreak.

SEE ALSO: Coronavirus live updates: More than 111,000 people have been infected and nearly 3,900 have died. The US has reported 22 deaths. Here's everything we know.

DON'T MISS: Thousands of people in Italy panicked and tried to flee its 16-million-person coronavirus quarantine after the plan leaked

There are at least 173 cases in New York state, with 36 confirmed in New York City.

The majority of cases in New York state have been confirmed in Westchester County.

As of Tuesday, there were 108 confirmed cases in Westchester County, 36 in New York City, five in Nassau County, two in Rockland County, two in Saratoga County, one in Suffolk County, and one in Ulster County.

New York has become the second US state to report more than 100 coronavirus infections, after Washington.

A cluster of at least 90 cases have stemmed from New York's second reported coronavirus patient, a 50-year-old man in New Rochelle, a small city located in Westchester County. 

Among the 36 cases in New York City include an Uber driver from Queens, three family members on the Upper West Side, two women in Brooklyn, and a  man from the Bronx. On Monday, the first case was confirmed in Staten Island, meaning that at least one person in every New York City borough has tested positive for the virus. 

A spokesperson from Staten Island University Hospital has said that any samples taken from their hospital will be sent to Northwell's Long Island laboratory, where results are processed in approximately six hours.

When the lab becomes semi-automated, testing turnaround time will be close to three hours, and full-automated testing can eventually be completed in 90 minutes. 

On Monday afternoon, the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rick Cotton, tested positive for the virus. 

The number of cases is likely much higher than those confirmed because the US is lagging in testing patients.

On March 7, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency.

As cases surged over the weekend, Cuomo declared a state of emergency to expedite the process of purchasing necessary supplies and hiring the proper amount of healthcare workers needed to quell the outbreak. 

A state of emergency is declared when a governor believes a disaster may be imminent or severe enough to require state aid to local officials and quick action. 

According to a New York Times interview with Kryssie Woods, a hospital epidemiologist and the medical director of infection prevention at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan, declaring a state of emergency allows hospitals to house more patients and access testing supplies and equipment much faster. 

Washington, California, Oregon, and New Jersey have also declared emergencies.

Cuomo attacked the CDC during a press conference on Sunday.

On Sunday, Cuomo said the CDC and the federal government had failed to respond to the outbreak in a timely manner. 

This criticism came after Cuomo said multiple private labs in New York could be used for coronavirus testing if the federal government gave approval.

"The CDC has not authorized the use of this lab, which is just outrageous and ludicrous," he said of Northwell Health Labs at the Center for Advanced Medicine in North New Hyde Park, Long Island, New York. 

"CDC, wake up. Let the states test. Let private labs test. Let's increase as quickly as possible our testing capacity so we can identify the positive people. Not to be using this laboratory, not to be using the other private labs around the state makes no sense whatsoever," he added.

Testing in New York City has remained limited — as of Saturday, only about 120 people in total had been tested for the virus. But after it requested additional aid from the federal government, the city received 23,000 tests over the weekend.

The state has created a 'containment zone' to limit large gatherings in New Rochelle, a small city north of New York City and the epicenter of the outbreak.

On Tuesday, Cuomo announced a containment strategy to prevent the spread of the virus in New Rochelle, an area of New York that is emerging as the epicenter of the outbreak. 

"New Rochelle, at this point, is probably the largest cluster of these cases in the United States," he said at a news conference on Tuesday.

The containment area — intended to contain facilities that may be susceptible to spreading the disease — is comprised of a one-mile radius centered around a synagogue, which is believed to have connected many people with the virus. All schools, religious spaces, and other large gathering locations within this radius will be closed for two weeks starting on Thursday. Grocery stores and delis will remain open. 

The state will also deploy the National Guard to clean out schools and bring food to quarantined community members, Cuomo said.

Schools have shut down throughout the state, including private universities and public high schools.

Thousands of students across New York City and surrounding areas will be out of class for at least a week as authorities attempt to slow the coronavirus outbreak.

On Monday, Cuomo announced that if a student in any New York school tested positive for the virus, their school would be closed for at least 24 hours and assessed by health officials.

Among the schools that have already closed down are:

• Barnard College in Manhattan canceled classes until March 10 and will be taught remotely for the rest of the week.
• Brooklyn Friends School in Brooklyn announced that it would close at 6 p.m. Monday. 
• Columbia University in Manhattan will not hold classes on Monday and Tuesday and has offered remote classes for the rest of the week after a student was exposed to the virus.
• Covent of the Sacred Heart in Manhattan will be closed until March 30. 
• East Ramapo Central School District in Rockland Country will be closed through March 10.
• Ethical Culture Fieldston School in the Bronx will be closed starting March 10.
• Fordham University in the Bronx said it would transition to online classes on Wednesday after a student began displaying symptoms. 
• Hofstra University on Long Island canceled classes for a week after a student exhibited symptoms of the virus. 
• Horace Mann School in the Bronx has canceled classes until March 31.
• Iona College in Westchester County will have classes canceled until March 13.
• Keio Academy in Westchester County will be closed for the remainder of the school year.
• Manhattan College in the Bronx will cancel classes through March 10, and move to online schooling on March 11. 
• New York University in Manhattan has suspended in-person classes from March 11-27.
• Poly Prep in Brooklyn will be closed this week, beginning on March 9. 
• Princeton University in New Jersey announced it would move its classes online for at least two weeks after March 23.
• Riverdale Country School in the Bronx will be closed to all students on March 10. 
• Rutgers University in New Jersey has canceled classes for Thursday and Friday and will move to online classes until April 3.
• SAR Academy and SAR High School in the Bronx will be closed until further notice.
• Saint John's University in Queens will suspend in-person classes until March 27.
• The entire school district in Scarsdale, a suburb in Westchester County which announced it would close the schools until March 18 after a middle-school teacher tested positive for the virus.
• The Brearley School in Manhattan will be closed through March 13. 
• The Browning School in Manhattan will be closed until March 30.
• The Julliard School in Manhattan has suspended in-person classes, as well as activities and performances between March 16 and March 29.
• The Nightingale-Bamford School in Manhattan will be closed until March 30.
• The Riverdale Day School in the Bronx will be closed until March 30.
• United Nations International School in Manhattan and Queens have closed on March 10.
• Wayne Township Public Schools in Passaic County will close on March 13 to prepare for a further possible shutdown. 
• Yeshiva University in Manhattan canceled classes for a week after a student and two faculty members tested positive for the virus.

All international trips have been canceled for public schools in New York City.

As of Monday, there are no plans to shut down any of New York City's public schools, and there have been no cases confirmed in public schools. However, Mayor Bill de Blasio has canceled all international trips affiliated with public schools. 

"I think parents want to see the schools keep going so long as it's safe, want to see their kids getting educated," de Blasio said in a news conference on Sunday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is bringing in 85 nurses across New York City schools and supplying cleaning products where necessary.

De Blasio said New York City would add 85 nurses to city schools throughout the week to ensure that every school building has a healthcare worker. 

Additionally, the city will be making spot checks to make sure there are enough cleaning products and soap for public schools. The education department will also administer aid to private, religious, and charter schools that lack the necessary products to curb an outbreak.

Cuomo announced that the state will produce 100,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to be given away for free to schools, prisons and government agencies.

On Monday, Gov. Cuomo announced that New York will begin producing 100,000 gallons of hand sanitizer to be administered for free, in response to reports that there is a supply shortage across the state. 

The hand sanitizer is being made by prisoners at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Washington County and costs six dollars a gallon to manufacture. It will be given away to schools, prisons, government agencies, and the MTA. 

The decision to utilize prison workers for this task has received backlash amongst criminal justice groups, who view these efforts as exploitative.

New York City will issue loans to small businesses in an attempt to protect the economy.

In an attempt to protect New York City's economy, de Blasio said small businesses with fewer than 100 employees were eligible for no-interest loans of up to $75,000 if they could prove sales had decreased by 25% amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

Additionally, businesses with fewer than five employees could receive grants of up to $6,000.

Thousands of people are self-quarantining.

By Friday, at least 4,000 people had been asked to self-quarantine, and more than half of those people were in New York City. 

Thirty people have been put under mandatory quarantine in New York City and could face charges if they break isolation.

But a lack of communication during the quarantine process has caused confusion for many New Yorkers. According to the New York Times, local health departments in the state are supposed to issue daily check-in's for those who are under precautionary quarantine, but in many cases, they have not done so yet.

The CDC has issued guidelines for people who may have someone with an infection in their homes, as well as recommendations on what to buy to prepare for a quarantine.

Federal courthouses in New York are limiting who can enter their buildings.

Two of New York's biggest and busiest federal court districts have issued orders preventing people who may have been exposed to the virus from entering courthouses. 

On Tuesday, the chief judge for the Eastern District of New York issued an order that prevents people who may have been exposed to the virus from entering any courthouses in Brooklyn or Long Island. 

On Monday, the chief judge for the Southern District of New York issued a similar order, barring those affected from entering courthouses in Manhattan and Westchester County. 

Those who have been specifically barred from entering the courthouses include: anyone who has traveled to China, South Korea, Japan, Italy or Iran in the last two weeks; anyone who has been asked to self-quarantine; and people who have tested positive for the coronavirus or been in contact with those who have.

Authorities are recommending that people avoid crowded subway stations and close contact with others, and work from home where necessary.

De Blasio has urged employers to be flexible with work hours and allow employees to work from home if possible. 

Additionally, he urged New Yorkers to avoid crowded subway cars and, where accessible, walk or bike to work. City officials confirmed that the coronavirus spreads when a viral droplet enters someone's nose, mouth, or eyes, which makes a crowded subway car a susceptible place to quickly spread disease.

But New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade has not been canceled.

Despite the number of cases rising throughout the city and state, de Blasio said that New York City has no plans to cancel its St. Patrick's Day parade next week. The event draws over 100,000 people to parade down Fifth Avenue, with hundreds of thousands gathering in the streets to watch. 

In an interview on CNN Tuesday morning, Cuomo said they were weighing the possibility of canceling the event. 

"That's one of the things we're looking at," he said. 

St. Patrick's Day parades have been canceled all throughout Ireland, as well as in Boston, a city that hosts a sizable parade each year to celebrate its Irish-American community. 

Surrounding states, including New Jersey and Connecticut, are beginning to ramp up efforts.

On Monday, Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey declared a state of emergency and public health emergency, after new cases brought the state's total to 15. 

On Tuesday, New Jersey reported its first death: a 69-year-old man with a history of health problems. 

Twenty-seven people are being monitored throughout nine counties in the state, and three of the most recent patients to test positive are being hospitalized. Last week, the state ordered school districts to develop plans for teaching students at home in the event that schools close during the outbreak. 

Several of the cases in New Jersey have been linked to the cluster of cases in New Rochelle, NY. 

Connecticut reported its first case of the coronavirus over the weekend, a patient between 40 and 50 years old who was most likely infected on a recent trip to California.

New York City already has a "contingency plan" developed in case the virus leads to mass casualties.

Only 25 people have been infected in New York City so far, but if the virus gets out of hand, the city is prepared to take on mass casualties. 

The New York City contingency plan was developed for 'biological outbreaks' in 2008 in response to concerns that the Bird Flu would cause a devastating influenza pandemic. 

The Bird Flu had a 2% mortality rate — approximately the same rate as the novel coronavirus — and authorities mapped out a plan to prepare with 50,000 deaths at the time.

To deal with an influx of dead bodies, the city would place refrigerated units outside of hospitals to increase their mortality capacity. Each unit would have the capacity to hold between 9 and 44 bodies until they could be cremated or buried. 

Additionally, inmates from Rikers Island would be transported to Hart Island to dig mass graves for the dead to be buried. Cremation efforts would also be ramped up.

In total, the coronavirus has infected more than 116,000 people and killed 4,000 worldwide.

So far, more than 116,000 people have been infected, and at least 4,000 people have been killed by the virus worldwide, with most of the cases in China. The US has reported over 800 cases and 29 deaths: 24 in Washington state, two in Florida, two in California and one in New Jersey.

Over the weekend, Cuomo tweeted, "We're testing aggressively & we are seeing the number of confirmed cases go up as expected." 

Over the next several weeks, officials are prepared to see hundreds of new cases in New York, primarily because of community spread, according to The New York Times.

• Paper towels are one of the most underappreciated commodities of modern life.
• They help out with everything from kitchen cleaning to car washing to personal hygiene to baby care.
• You might not think about them often, but you'd miss them if they were gone. The Bounty Quick-Size Paper Towels are our top pick because they're absorbent and tough, yet soft enough for delicate tasks.
• See also: The best cleaning supplies for kitchen and laundry appliances

How many times have you already used a paper towel today? Chances are that you can't even remember exactly because you probably take them entirely for granted. But try to imagine the acute absence you'd feel the next time you spilled a cup of coffee or a glass of wine and no paper towels were there to help sop up the mess. Or imagine cleaning the kitchen or bathroom without a roll of trusty paper towels at your side. And good luck getting the inside of the microwave spic and span without them. Or the windows streak-free. And so on.

Long story short, we take paper towels for granted even though most of us depend on them multiple times a day. Just over a hundred years ago, people didn't even have the option of casually dismissing paper towels. The Scott Paper Company marketed the first paper towels in the year 1907, apparently after cleverly re-branding a shipment of improperly produced toilet tissue that was too thick and coarse to use for cleaning nether regions. Disposable paper towels quickly caught on, both for their basic convenience and because these single-use products could prevent the spread of illness as opposed to the reusable fabric towels theretofore used in restrooms.

Today, paper towels are as ubiquitous the world over and are used in homes, businesses, restaurants, auto body shops, schools, hospitals, and everywhere else human beings do, well, anything. Since you're going to use paper towels almost every day of your life, it's great that you're taking a moment to consider which brand of paper towels best fits your needs and lifestyle.

Here the best paper towels:

• Best paper towels overall: Bounty Quick-Size Paper Towels
• Best recycled paper towels: Seventh Generation Unbleached Paper Towels
• Best low-cost paper towels: Plenty Ultra Premium Paper Towels
• Best paper towels for personal hygiene: Kleenex Hand Towels

Prices and links are current as of 3/10/2020. We also added a product showcase of the top of the guide as well as a section of related buying guides.

SEE ALSO: The best bathroom cleaning products you can buy

The best overall

Bounty Quick-Size Paper Towels manage to be both tough and delicate at once, suitable for use scrubbing the floors or for cleaning sensitive objects.

When it comes to some things, I'll always choose the generic brand and save a few bucks. That goes for medicine, batteries, breakfast cereal, and so on. When it comes to paper towels, though, I trust Bounty. And so do millions of other people around the country.

Bounty Quick-Size paper towels are thick and absorbent, sopping up more fluid than any other paper towels I've used, therefore readily justifying their rather elevated price because you go through fewer of these paper towels per cleanup than you would with a flimsier alternative.

Soft to the touch, Bounty paper towels are safe for use on delicate objects like paintbrushes (or makeup brushes), jewelry, decorative items, electronics, and more. But you can also ball up a Bounty paper towel and scour away at pots and pans, scrub at bathroom tiles or kitchen floors, or use them in the grime and grease you need to clean off your car, bike, or lawnmower. I know, because I periodically clean the car, bike, and lawnmower. Though probably less than I should.

Pros: Resist tearing even when saturated, soft feel, excellent absorption

Cons: Expensive option

The best eco-friendly paper towels

Seventh Generation Unbleached Paper Towels are made from 100% recycled paper, so their use doesn't contribute to deforestation.

If you care about nature but still want convenience when you clean up spills, wipe down countertops, or wash the car, then using a roll of Seventh Generation Unbleached Paper Towels is the way to go. These paper towels are made entirely from recycled paper products, and thus don't use any virgin wood pulp from trees chopped down to make paper.

They are also made without the use of any dyes, ink, or fragrance, and as the name makes clear, they are not bleached. The absence of all such chemicals further reduces the effect these Seventh Generation paper towels have on the environment, both in terms of their production and their impact after they are thrown away.

We use several Seventh Generation products in our house, including baby wipes and dish soap, and we've used their paper towels many times. They are as durable as most processed paper towel options and are perfectly suitable for most cleaning tasks. I will tell you, though, that they are less absorbent than a number of other paper towels I've tried, though it's a tradeoff most people will gladly accept for the minimal impact the paper towels have on the planet.

Pros: Made from 100% recycled paper, no chemicals used in processing

Cons: Less absorbent than other brands

The best low-cost paper towels

Plenty Ultra Premium Paper Towels are about as absorbent and durable as any other major brand, but they cost less than the other choices.

There's nothing I can say about Plenty Ultra Premium Paper Towels that will wow you really. They're not 100% recycled and they're not free of bleach and other chemicals. They are, however, soft and absorbent and relatively durable, and they can be used to sop up spills, as napkins with casual meals or snacks, or to help you clean the bathroom or wipe down furniture... but so can lots of other paper towels.

So what sets these paper towels apart from the pack? They cost less, and that's pretty much that. But the fact that they are lower priced while not being lower quality is worth noting. Also, all Plenty Ultra Premium Paper Towels are manufactured in either North Carolina or Pennsylvania, if you value American-made products.

Pros: Low price point, soft to the touch, durable enough for scrubbing

Cons: Cardboard tube too narrow for some holders

The best for personal hygiene

With a box of paper Kleenex Hand Towels, multiple people can share a bathroom without sharing their germs after hand washing.

Whether used in a home, school, or office during cold and flu season or in any public restroom any time of the year, a box of Kleenex Hand Towels is a great way to prevent the spread of germs after hand washings.

When people share a cloth towel after washing their hands, any residual germs not rinsed away or killed off during the washing can be readily transferred to the next person who uses the same towel. If you are responsible for a bathroom that does not have a built-in paper towel dispenser (or a hand dryer), then putting a box of these disposable paper hand towels beside the sink is a great way to help people keep their hands clean and dry and to keep their germs a private matter.

Kleenex Hand Towels are a great choice for use in the home, especially during an open house or dinner party when people outside the family are visiting, but as each box holds a generous count of 60 towels, they are also perfectly suitable for use in the bathroom of a busy office or a restaurant.

The angular design of the box allows it to be perched atop a towel bar for easy access, but the box can also simply be set on a counter or on the side of the sink, too. Also, beyond the fact that stopping the spread of germs is a plus, it's also just convenient to grab a fresh, dry paper hand towel after washing up, germ concerns or not.

Pros: Great way to stop spread of germs, convenient dispensing, absorbent and soft

Cons: Rather pricey for paper towels

Check out our other cleaning guides

The best disinfecting cleaners

With the rise of infection from cold and flu viruses, protecting your family is more crucial than ever. While there isn't just one product that will easily disinfect everything in your home, we've put together the best disinfecting cleaners for everything from clothes to counters and athletic gear. These are the best disinfecting cleaners.

The best hand soap

Hand washing is the single best way to prevent the spread of viral illnesses like colds and the flu, and it's the best way to keep bacteria from entering your body. These are the best hand soaps.

The best floor cleaners

Taking care of hard surface floors is a never-ending job. Just think about what gets dropped and spilled on your floors and what comes into your home on the bottom of shoes. Sweeping or vacuuming can capture much of the loose dirt and hair, but eventually, some of the mess will stick and the floor is going to need to be cleaned with a mop and a good cleaner. These are the best floor cleaners.

The best mops

For regular upkeep of hard surfaces — wood, laminate, concrete, stone, etc. — a mop is an effective tool, even if it's basic. But mopping is also a dreaded chore. We're here to tell you that, from years of research and testing, mopping doesn't have to be difficult. Here are the best mops you can buy.

The best robot vacuums

A high-quality robot vacuum is easy to schedule, picks up most debris from an array of surfaces, and runs quietly while going about its work. Our guide features vacuums that performed well in our tests, have useful features that justify their price, and are designed to make cleaning your floors as seamless as possible. These are the best robot vacuums.

• Prime Book Box for Kids subscribers receive a box of carefully curated children's books every month, two months, or three months.
• The service saves customers up to 40% off the list price of the books, which are delivered free through the Amazon Prime program.
• You must be a Prime subscriber to sign up for the Book Box.
• The service offers book recommendations tailored to babies and young toddlers, kids ages 3 to 5, 6 to 8, and 9 to 12 years old.

You're already an Amazon Prime member, right? Okay, good.

And do you have kids? Yes?

Do you hope to foster a love of reading in those kids of yours? Okay, great!

Now, final question: Is inspiring said love of reading worth $19.99 a month to you? Spectacular. You're the perfect household to sign up for Amazon's Prime Book Box book delivery service for babies and kids.

What is Amazon Prime Book Box for Kids?

If you want to leave the selection of the books that will be delivered to your kids in the capable hands of Amazon's editors, you can probably complete the sign-up process in the same amount of time you've spent reading this article thus far. But in case you want a bit more information about the program, let's go a bit deeper here:

How can you sign up for the Book Box for Kids?

To sign up for a Prime Book Box subscription, you will indeed already need to be a Prime member. If you're not, well, that's an added expense, but just think of all the free shipping, TV and movie streaming, and music benefits that come along with it (and dozens of other perks, too).

The monthly price of a Prime Book Box is just $19.99, and you can choose to have books delivered monthly, every other month, or every three months. (So that's $239.88, $119.94, or $79.96 annually, for the record.) Members save up to 40% off the list price of books by using the Book Box, which includes four board books for kids through age 2 and comes with two hardcover books for kids in each of the other three age categories.

What do you get in the Book Box for Kids?

Parents can look through a list of books selected by Amazon's editors and choose the books that will be included in each box, but I recommend you leave the curating in the hands of the company's accomplished editors. According to the Prime Book Box page itself:

Each box features books our customers love and our Amazon book editors couldn't forget. Our editors read thousands of books every year to find selections your reader will enjoy again and again. You'll discover new releases, classics, and hidden gems tailored to your reader's age.

If your family's experience is anything like mine so far, that's not just marketing copy, it's accurate.

The two books included in our preschool-aged son's first box immediately became part of our standard bedtime operating procedure, and as far as we can tell, our 9-month-old daughter loves her board books, though that may be more of a tactile and teething thing, to be honest. I'll ask her once she can talk.

The bottom line

It's little surprise Amazon managed to launch such a successful program, of course. The behemoth of a company has its roots as an online bookstore (do you even remember that? It was all about books back in the day. Now it's... everything), and it's pretty good at the whole delivery thing, too.

Staffing up with editors who select excellent books was the last piece of the puzzle for this affordable, elegantly simple book subscription program that just might play a major role in helping your kids grow up loving books.

Join the conversation about this story »

• Even without an oven, it's easy to prepare pizza at home, whether you're making it from scratch or simply heating up a frozen pie.
• You likely already have all the tools required to make pizza without an oven in your kitchen, or you can pick up a couple of inexpensive yet efficient appliances you'll likely use for more than making pizza.
• We recommend Calphalon's toaster oven as an oven substitute, Lodge cast iron pans for stovetop pizza, and the Maxi Nature Kitchenware pizza pans for grilling.
• See more: The best pizza ovens

While various forms of flatbreads topped with cheeses, meats, vegetables, and herbs have been consumed for centuries by civilizations around the world, pizza, as we know it today, has only been around for about 250 years.

We have the working-class residents of late 1700s Naples to thank as pizza was their main food group in that era. Though disdained as peasant food for nearly a century after it became commonplace, many of the pies these 18th century Neapolitans were eating closely resemble pizzas still enjoyed today, such as the Pizza Mozzarella, later renamed the Margherita pizza in honor of Italy's Queen Margherita a century later.

Today, most of us can have a pizza delivered to our door in a matter of minutes after we order over the phone or online. There are also a plethora of frozen pizza options that cook up into surprisingly delectable dinners. And finally, of course, there is always homemade pizza.

Making pizza from scratch is actually quite simple and, with a bit of practice, arguably the best way to enjoy pizza, as you can control every aspect of the process, from dough consistency to cheese quantity to toppings to seasoning and so on. If you're interested in making your own pizza, consider the book "The Elements of Pizza" by Ken Forkish, and check out our guide to everything you need to make pizza at home.

Even if you're making it from scratch, reheating last night's takeout, or picking up a frozen pie, the one thing you don't need is an oven. This is great news for anyone without a working oven or anyone who just doesn't want to wait 15 minutes for it to heat up. 

How to make pizza without an oven:

How to make pizza in a toaster oven

So you want to bake a pizza, whether fresh or frozen, but you don't have a conventional oven? Zero problem. The easiest solution here is to get a countertop electric oven, aka a toaster oven that plugs into any outlet and no gas line connection required.

Many countertop ovens are compact, affordable, and will fit the smaller space of a cramped apartment.

On the lower end of the budget range, consider the $64 Hamilton Beach Easy Reach Toaster Oven, which can bake a pizza up to 12-inches in diameter.

At the other end of the price spectrum, the $193 Calphalon Quartz Heat Countertop Toaster Oven can also cook up 12-inch pies, and thanks to its 11 preset cooking functions — including pizza, toast, bake, broil, and more — it can cook just about anything else too. It also comes with a pizza pan.

You can check out more toaster oven options in our buying guide.

How to make pizza on the stove

While surely the easiest way to make pizza without a conventional oven is to simply make it with a countertop oven, that's far from the only way. Stovetop pizza can be delicious to eat and fun to make, as long as you pay close attention to the cooking process.

While you can make stovetop pizza in just about any decent pan, a seasoned cast iron skillet is the best choice for even cooking and great flavor. I recommend a pre-seasoned $38.11 Lodge 12-inch Cast Iron Skillet. Here's how to use it.

1. Drizzle two to three tablespoons of olive, grapeseed, or avocado oil into the pan and turn the burner to medium heat.
2. Stretch out fresh dough to fit the diameter of the pan, and make sure your sauce, cheese, and toppings are ready and nearby.
3. Place dough into the pan and allow it to cook for about three minutes until the bottom is browning nicely.
4. Flip dough and quickly apply sauce, cheese, and toppings atop the cooked half.
5. Cook for three to four additional minutes, covering pan if need be to ensure even and thorough melting.

And that's it! Not only is stovetop pizza faster than baked pizza, but it's also often tastier too in my humble opinion, as the seasoning of the cast iron imparts a rich, herb and spice flavor. Read our guide to the best cast iron pans you can buy.

How to make pizza on the grill

Grilled pizza can be a messy affair compared to making pizza on the stove or in a toaster oven. If your dough is too soft, it might drip down past the grates, wasting the food and leading to the most intense grill cleaning session of your life. It's also easy to burn the pie and ruin it that way, too, especially on the first few attempts.

But with patience and practice, grilled pizza will taste as good as the brick oven-fired stuff you get from the finest pizzeria in town. Especially if you cook with added wood chips or cook using a pellet stove for that genuine wood-fired oven taste.

I recommend a good pizza grill pan, which can help keep the dough intact as it cooks. Pro tip: Get a set of two, and place one under the raw dough one on top. This way, it's easier to flip without ruining the shape or flattening the dough.

1. Heat your gas grill to about 600 degrees Fahrenheit, or get a charcoal grill fully lit and evenly burning.
2. Stretch and roll your dough, then brush both sides with oil.
3. Place dough on the grill (ideally on a pan) and cook for three minutes without closing the lid so you can watch out for charring.
4. Flip the dough, then immediately apply sauce, cheese, and topping.
5. Close the grill, and cook for an additional three minutes before checking to see if the pie is ready. Which it probably will be.

How to make (frozen) pizza in the microwave

You can't cook decent fresh pizza in a microwave. Sorry, but I don't make the rules.

But you can re-heat pies or cook frozen pizza in the ubiquitous appliance. Add some herbs like fresh or dried basil, or even pepper flakes beforehand, and then just follow the instructions on the package.

If you don't have a microwave, check out our guide to the best microwaves you can buy.

Check out our guide on what you need to make pizza at home

The best pizza-making tools you can buy

Delicious homemade pizza is not only more affordable than ordering out, but with the right tools and tips, it also tastes better. We've rounded up the best pizza-making tools to start you on your way to achieving master status.

Whether you go all-out making your dough and sauce from scratch or just prefer to find convenient solutions that allow you to throw together a quick pie, we've got the best of the best for your pizza making needs.

• Luxury fashion is bracing for impact as Italy has been put into complete lockdown amid the coronavirus outbreak.
• Italy has a fashion-and-textile industry worth $107.9 billion, The Wall Street Journal's Eric Sylvers reports.
• The headquarters of Prada, Versace, and Armani are all in the Italian city of Milan, while international brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Stella McCartney rely on Italy for the manufacture of various goods.
• Though many Italian manufacturers are unsure of what happens next, the main concern is not necessarily being able to produce the products — it's being able to sell them. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The luxury fashion industry is still seeing the impact of COVID-19.

Although Vogue Business reports that more than 80% of shopping malls and supermarkets have reopened in major Chinese cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, Italy is now bracing for the impact the coronavirus will have on its economy and 60 million inhabitants. 

On Monday, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced that the entire country would go on lockdown as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise.  As of Tuesday morning, Italy had 9,172 reported cases of the virus and 463 deaths, making it the most affected country outside of China, according to CNN. 

As previously reported by Business Insider, luxury stocks were hit hard by the initial outbreak. Over about two weeks, from January 17 to January 31, the MSCI Europe Textiles, Apparel & Luxury Goods Index saw nearly $54 billion in market value erased. On Monday, Tamison O'Connor for Business of Fashion reported that multiple consulting firms, including Boston Consulting Group and Bernstein, had previously predicted in February the luxury sector could lose €30 to €40 billion (up to $45 billion) in sales this year.

But this was before Italy's fashion-and-textile industry — alone worth $107.9 billion, per Eric Sylvers of The Wall Street Journal — was put on lockdown. 

Italy's northern region is home to 60% of the country's textile and clothing manufacturers, according to O'Connor

The northern region of Italy has been on lockdown since Sunday, Business Insider previously reported, and that move has impacted the luxury sector already. The headquarters of Prada, Armani, and Versace are located in the northern city of Milan. Similarly, many international brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Stella McCartney, depend on factories located in the northern region of the country to manufacture their clothing, O'Connor writes.

But with the rest of the country now on lockdown, brands will have to deal with not just a blow in the northern region's production, but in the southern as well. The southern region contains even more leather goods and jewelry manufacturers. As Business Insider previously reported, leather goods is often one of the top performing sectors for a luxury brand, and one popular handbag has the ability to financially stabilize a company. 

Now under a full lockdown, Italian factories are not only worried about whether they can produce products but if they can sell them too.

The Wall Street Journal's Sylvers reported that foreign buyers around the world are cancelling orders of Italian textiles and products, impacting the entire clothing supply chain — from companies who produce the fabrics, to those who create the clothes and accessories. 

This couldn't have come at a worse time for an industry that just finished up a month of showing spring/summer collections, as brands must now worry about being able to ship and sell the inventory they spent thousands to produce — not accounting for the often six figure cost of putting on a show.  

Though spring/summer collections showed during fashion month with hesitation, before the scale of the coronavirus outbreak was better known, WSJ reports that thousands of buyers, influencers, and journalists have now decided to avoid the Milan runways; consequently, many Italian luxury brands have decided to cancel upcoming cruise collections, per Business of Fashion.

Giorgio Armani's cruise show, which was scheduled for April 19 to April 20 in Dubai, has already been moved to October and will no longer include its initial cruise collection. Versace and Gucci have similarly canceled US shows planned for May, while Prada canceled its May resort show in Tokyo, Business of Fashion reports.

Fashion month ends — and a two-week self-quarantine period begins

Many US-based editors, influencers, models, and buyers who did travel to Milan for fashion events returned home to find a memo from their employers requesting that they self-quarantine due to their travels in Italy. 

On February 27, Women's Wear Daily's Kathryn Hopkins reported that Hearst Magazines, which publishes Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, and Elle, sent out a memo to staffers saying that anyone who had been to Iran, China, Japan, South Korea, or Italy in the past 30 days must work for home for at least two weeks. Milan Fashion Week took place from February 18 to February 24.

Meanwhile, Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, issued a similar memo, asking anyone who had been to Italy since February 6 — or who lives with a person who had been to Italy in that timeframe — to self-quarantine.

Penske Media, which owns WWD, Variety, and Rolling Stone, advised staffers to work from home for at least 14 days following their return if they've traveled to a coronavirus-impacted area, while Meredith Corp, which owns InStyle and People, recommended voluntary two-week quarantines for those coming back from Milan. Condé Nast, however, which owns Vogue, Glamour, and GQ, did not issue a remote work mandate for its jet-set staffers.

And these measures already seem to be necessary: The South China Morning Post reported on Sunday that Nga Nguyen, a 27-year-old steel magnate heiress and prominent Vietnamese socialite who, in February, attended Gucci's fashion show in Milan and Saint Laurent's in Paris, has been diagnosed with coronavirus.

SEE ALSO: Luxury retailers have lost billions in value as a result of coronavirus-outbreak fears. Many aren't sure what the full impact will be.

DON'T MISS: A look at the life of Virgil Abloh, the man The New York Times called the 'Karl Lagerfeld for millennials,' but who should probably best be known as the first Virgil Abloh

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I switched to Google Photos after using iCloud for 5 years and I'm never going back

• This is a preview of The Payments Ecosystem research report from Business Insider Intelligence.
• Purchase this report.
• Business Insider Intelligence offers even more consumer coverage with Payments & Commerce Pro. Subscribe today to receive industry-changing payments and commerce news and analysis to your inbox.

The power dynamics in the payments industry are changing as businesses and consumers shift dollars from cash and checks to digital payment methods. Cards dominate the in-store retail channel, but mobile wallets like Apple Pay are seeing a rapid uptick in usage.

At the same time, e-commerce will chip away at brick-and-mortar retail as smartphones attract a rising share of digital shopping. Digital peer-to-peer (P2P) apps are supplanting cash in the day-to-day lives of users across generations as they become more appealing and useful than ever.

And change is trickling down into bigger industries long-dominated by cash and check, like remittances and business-to-business payments.

In response, providers are scrambling for market share. Skyrocketing consolidation that creates mega-giants is forcing providers to diversify in search of new volume.

New entrants, especially from big tech, are threatening the leads of giants. And as payments become increasingly effortless, new types of fraud are threatening data security and privacy. While demand for richer payments offerings is creating opportunities across the space, it's also leaving the industry in search of ways to adapt to change that is putting trillions in volume and billions in revenue up for grabs.

In this report, Business Insider Intelligence examines the payments ecosystem today, its growth drivers, and where the industry is headed. It begins by tracing the path of an in-store card payment from processing to settlement across the key stakeholders. That process is central to understanding payments, and has changed slowly in the face of disruption.

The report also forecasts growth and defines drivers for key digital payment types through 2024. Finally, it highlights three trends that are changing payments, looking at how disparate factors, such as new market entrants and surging fraud, are sparking change across the ecosystem.

The companies mentioned in this report are: ACI Worldwide, Adyen, Amazon, American Express, Apple, Bank of America, Braintree, Bento for Business, Capital One, Citi, Diebold Nixdorf, Discover, Earthport, Elavon, EVO, Facebook, First Data, Fiserv, FIS, Global Payments, Goldman Sachs, Google, Green Dot, Honda, Ingenico, Intuit, JPMorgan Chase, Kabbage, Macy's, Mastercard, MICROS, MoneyGram, NatWest, NICE, NCR, Oracle, Paymentus, PayPal, Rambus, Remitly, Ria, Samsung, SiriusXM, SF Systems, Square, Stripe, Synchrony Financial, The Clearing House, Target, Tipalti, Toast, Transfast, TSYS, Venmo, Verifone, Vocalink, Visa, Walmart, Wells Fargo, WePay, Western Union, Xoom, Zelle

Here are some of the key takeaways from this report:

• In-store payment methods are still on the rise in the US, comprising 89% of retail volume this year. Credit and debit cards continue to lead the segment, as cash and check usage slowly ticks downward. But surging contactless penetration is set to bring mobile in-store payments to prominence for the first time in the years ahead.
• Surging e-commerce will eat away at in-store payments' share of overall retail. PCs will continue to lead the way, but smartphones will inch closer to being the top channel for purchasing, in turn driving growth. At the same time, new payment tools, like voice assistants, wearables, and even cars will begin to give consumers even easier ways to pay.
• The digitization of payments isn't just contained to retail, though, with mobile P2P payments, digital remittances, and digital business payments continuing to blossom as change spreads through the ecosystem.

In full, the report:

• Traces the path of an in-store card payment from processing to settlement across key stakeholders.
• Discusses emerging alternatives to card payments.
• Examines the shifting role of key categories of providers as the ecosystem digitizes and matures.
• Forecasts growth in key categories, including in-store payments, e-commerce, mobile P2P payments, remittances, and B2B payments.
• Identifies three trends set to shape payments in 2020 and evaluates what changes the ecosystem is set to undergo.

Interested in getting the full report? Here's how to get access:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Sign up for Payments & Commerce Pro, Business Insider Intelligence's expert product suite keeping you up-to-date on the people, technologies, trends, and companies shaping the future of consumerism, delivered to your inbox 6x a week. >>Get Started
3. Join thousands of top companies worldwide who trust Business Insider Intelligence for their competitive research needs. >> Inquire About Our Enterprise Memberships
4. Current subscribers can read the report here.

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• Insider has obtained exclusive photos of Trump meeting in the White House with the actors and creators of a play based on the real-life anti-Trump texts sent between FBI employees who were having an affair. 
• "FBI Lovebirds"was staged at CPAC on February 27, the same day as the meeting in the Oval Office, just as the coronavirus crisis was beginning to spread across the U.S.
• There were 60 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in the U.S. on February 27. Today there are 647, according to the CDC.
• The play's writer told Insider that Trump "loved" the idea of the play and joked that he should play the role of ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

While the US was in the relatively early stages of the coronavirus crisis, President Donald Trump controversially held a 45-minute meeting— originally scheduled to be just 15 minutes — with the lead actors and creators of a play about ex-FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page's anti-Trump texts.

The play, "FBI Lovebirds,"was staged at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 27, the same day as the meeting in the Oval Office. 

At the time, there were 60 confirmed cases in the U.S. of novel coronavirus. The most recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) count is 647 nationwide. 

In photos exclusively obtained by Insider, Trump can be seen posing with former "Lois and Clark" actor Dean Cain, who played Strzok, and former "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" actress Kristy Swanson, who played Page.

Strzok and Page were having an affair during the period of the texts, which Trump and his allies have cited as evidence of a "Deep State" conspiracy against him.

Among the most controversial of the messages was Strzok saying "No, we'll stop it" in response to Page's question asking whether Trump could actually be elected president. (Strzok later said the remark was "off the cuff" and in response to Trump's critical comments directed at Gold Star parents.)

After the texts were made public in December 2017, Strzok and Page were removed from their posts as part of then-special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Strzok was later fired by the FBI, and Page resigned in May 2018. 

Trump also posed in the Oval Office with the play's writer, Phelim McAleer, and his wife and producing partner, Ann McElhinney.

Trump spoke at CPAC on February 29, but he did not attend the play's performance two days earlier, and still hasn't seen it. 

McAleer told Insider that Trump "loved" the idea of the play and joked that he should play the role of Strzok. Cain replied in the Oval Office meeting that Trump could be his understudy. 

The White House did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. 

• Read more:
• Current and former Trump officials say CPAC failed to offer useful coronavirus updates, leaving them confused and angry about their level of exposure
• Chuck Schumer blasting conservative Supreme Court justices is more proof that Democrats are trying, and failing, to copy Trump's bluster
• Biden was the Democratic establishment's savior on Super Tuesday, but he's still a dangerously flawed candidate
• CPAC 2020 was all about worshiping Trump, hating socialism, and feeling victimized by media and the left

SEE ALSO: Current and former Trump officials say CPAC failed to offer useful coronavirus updates, leaving them confused and angry about their level of exposure

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• Cybersecurity company Exabeam says that two employees who attended the RSA Conference in San Francisco have tested positive with coronavirus. 
• One of the employees, a 45-year-old man with a heart condition, is very ill, Bloomberg reports.
• RSA was one of the few big tech events go on as planned amid the spread of coronavirus, with the support of San Francisco Mayor London Breed. San Francisco would ultimately declare a state of emergency right around the time the conference began.
• Other big events like the Game Developers Conference and Google Cloud Next, both slated to be held in San Francisco, have cancelled or otherwise postponed to a later date.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Two attendees of the RSA cybersecurity conference – one of the few tech trade shows to go one amid coronavirus fears – have tested positive for the virus, according to the conference and their employer, Exabeam. 

One of the two employees is reportedly very ill with the virus. 

"We learned that two individuals who attended RSA Conference 2020 have recently tested positive for COVID-19," conference organizers said on its website Tuesday.  

The California-based cybersecurity firm Exabeam tweeted Tuesday that "We recently learned and are saddened to share that two of our employees have tested positive for Coronavirus (COVID-19)."

When a Twitter user asked if the employees were at the company's booth at the 40,000-attendee trade show two weeks ago, the company responded "The two individuals who were at the conference may have been at our booth. If you visited our booth please be vigilant about monitoring yourself for symptoms and following guidelines to prevent possible infection."

Bloomberg reported Tuesday that an RSA attendee who appears to work for Exabeam "is seriously ill with respiratory issues." The news agency reported that the employee was a 45-year-old man from Connecticut with a heart condition. 

Robert Siegel, an immunologist at Stanford University, said conferences are particularly conducive to spreading viruses. In fact, if you wanted to create the ideal system to spread something like the coronavirus, convening thousands of people from all over the world, packing them into a confined space where they shake hands and talk at close quarters, and then spitting them back out in different directions would be a good way to do it, he suggsted.

"In terms of spreading respiratory viruses, this is greatly facilitated by close contact between large groups of individuals, and by people arriving from and dispersing to distant locations," he said. 

Mobile World Congress, South By Southwest and many smaller conferences before and since have cancelled at great cost because of the coronavirus crisis. The Game Developers Conference cancelled its San Francisco trade show as RSA wrapped up, despite encouragement from the city's tourism marketing agency. 

RSA went on, even as sponsors pulled out

The RSA conference posted frequent reminders to attendees to wash their hands and avoid handshakes if they were uncomfortable. The conference also referred attendees to health guidance from the Centers For Disease Control and other agencies. 

But it persisted in putting on the conference, even as sponsors IBM, AT&T, and Verizon pulled out as a cautionary measure.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed released a letter to RSA attendees the Friday before the conference that told them "San Francisco is open for business and events are proceeding as planned...We must set an example to prevent fear, rumors, and misinformation from guiding our actions." The letter noted that "the virus is not circulating in our community."

Five days later as the conference got under way, Breed declared a state of emergency in the city due to the virus. Breed and the department of health stressed that the emergency declaration was to help the city prepare in case the virus situation worsened.

The day of the declaration, Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco's director of health, said that "This is a global outbreak that is entering a new phase, and we must be prepared." He added, "This is not business as usual."

That same day RSA President Rohit Ghai opened the conference with a keynote in which he said "thanks to Mayor London Breed and her office for collaborating with our conference team to ensure a healthy and safe event for all." 

San Francisco continued to encourage conferences after the declaration of emergency. "The City continues to encourage people to attend events and conferences," wrote Andy Lynch, a member of the mayor's staff, on February 28. 

More than 118,000 people have been infected and over 4,200 have died of the virus. The US has reported 28 deaths.

San Francisco reported 14 total cases on Tuesday. On Monday the city banned non-essential group events held in city-owned facilities for two weeks.

RSA orgnizers declined to comment beyond the post on its website. Exabeam declined to comment beyond its tweets. The San Francisco Mayor's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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