Hong Kong cancels Marathon as the Coronavirus response level is raised to emergency

Hong Kong’s largest marathon — The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon — scheduled for Feb. 8 and 9 is scrapped for the first time since the bank began sponsoring it in 1997. The event involves 70,000 people this year and the government “believes it has to be cancelled,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Saturday as she raised the response level to “emergency.”