Coronavirus strikes journalists, others change way they work

Six people at CBS News have tested positive for coronavirus, including a correspondent stationed in Italy, as media organizations fought Monday against same epidemic y’re charged with describing.

Five employees with virus work in CBS’ New York offices, where most of its journalists were ordered to stay away as a result.

“Everyone works remotely unless specifically requested to come in,” CBS News President Susan Zirinsky said in a memo to her staff.

ABC News said Monday that a journalist who worked on network’s cover team of outbreak in Seattle h tested positive for coronavirus. person, who works in ABC’s Los Angeles bureau, has been isolated since last week and has suffered only mild symptoms.

network said it has told its entire Seattle cover team to stay home and has closed its Los Angeles bureau for a thorough cleaning.

Meanwhile, at NBC, an employee who worked on “Today” show’s third hour tested positive, forcing show’s anchors Craig Melvin and Al Roker and ors who came into contact with person to be ordered to isolate in ir homes as a result.

“Today” show’s 7 a.m. anchors, Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb, came to work but kept ir distance. y sat several feet apart from each or as show opened Monday, saying y were setting an example by following guidelines for social distancing.

“It does matter,” Kotb said. “We’re practicing that at home, we’re practicing that with our children and we want to practice that at work because it’s important.”

It was a subtle trend throughout television world. white couch on Fox News Channel’s “Outnumbered,” typically crowded with four women and one man, held only Harris Faulkner and Melissa Francis on Monday. or guests, Nicole Saphier, David Webb and Jessica Tarlov, were stationed in different studios.

Seth Doane, a CBS News correspondent who lives in Rome, revealed Monday that he was one of network’s employees to test positive. Italy is one of worst-hit countries in world.

“For most part, I feel OK,” Doane said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.” But he said he coughed eugh to worry people around him, h a slight fever and felt pressure in his chest, so he chose to get tested.

He said he’s felt worse in past with colds and flu. Most people who get coronavirus have only mild or moderate symptoms similar to what Doane described. For some, especially older ults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. vast majority of people recover.

It was a point Doane wanted to illustrate: that symptoms can be so mild that people can spre disease while t even realizing y have it.

“ psychological part for me has been worse than physical part,” Doane said, referring to how he’s h to call people that he’s been in contact with.

cases in CBS’ New York studios has h cascing impacts. New York’s WCBS-TV brocasts from re, so late last week, New York’s local news was delivered by anchors in a Los Angeles studio. syndicated “Inside Edition” also airs from re, and late last week Deborah rville did show from her kitchen at home.

John Oliver’s “Last Week Tonight” tapes in a studio in New York complex, and re were also people in HBO show’s office that tested positive. So Oliver on Sunday night taped a show without an audience from a studio where he sat in front of a white backdrop.

His abbreviated show was part comedy, part social commentary and part service journalism. He went through specific instructions of what viewers could do to avoid coronavirus and implored viewers to be careful about emailing or posting false information.

“We’re going to need to look out for one ar,” he said.

With society shutting down and many Americans house-bound for an undetermined length of time, re are preliminary signs that it might boost television audiences, particularly for news.

For past two weeks, Fox News has averd 3.57 million viewers in prime time, up 40% from same two-week period a year ago. MSNBC h 2.44 million, up 13%, and CNN h 1.63 million, up 72%, Nielsen company said.

An estimated 10.83 million people watched Sunday night’s debate between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders on CNN, Nielsen said.