The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) will shut down its trading floor and temporarily switch to electronic transactions after several traders were confirmed to carry the coronavirus.
Starting next Monday, all exchanges will be managed electronically, but markets will continue to operate along normal trading hours, the exchange said.
“While we are taking the precautionary step of closing the trading floors, we continue to firmly believe the markets should remain open and accessible to investors,” NYSE president Stacey Cunningham said in a statement.
The closure comes after a number of traders tested positive for the lethal pathogen, Cunningham told CNBC, however she noted that none of the infected individuals had been on the trading floor this week.
“We implemented a number a number of safety precautions over the past couple of weeks, and starting on Monday this week we started pre-emptive testing of employees and screening of anyone who came into the building,” Cunningham went on. “A couple of those test cases have come back positive.”
