The Ghibli Museum (Images: Twitter/@GhibliML)
The Ghibli Museum will be closing its doors starting today, Feb. 25, until March 17 due to the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus.
The museum in Mitaka, Japan, announced the temporary closure last Sunday, Feb. 23, as per an official statement on its website on the same day.
The move came after discussions with Mitaka City to comply with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s decision to cancel or postpone major indoor events for the next three weeks to curb the spread of the virus.
For those who already have tickets to the institution for the said dates, the museum will be issuing full refunds. Procedures for the refund have yet to be announced.
“We apologize to our visitors who have been looking forward to visiting the Museum,” it said, adding that it “shall continue to monitor the situation.”
The disease has already killed over 2,500 people and infected more than 79,000 worldwide. The World Health Organization named the illness COVID-19 after declaring the outbreak as a global health emergency. /ra
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