BOSTON (AP) — This year’s Boston Marathon is expected to proceed as planned amid worldwide concerns about the new COVID-19 virus, according to marathon officials.

There are no current plans to cancel the April race, the Boston Athletic Association said in a statement Saturday. Race officials would not say when or how they planned to come to a final decision.

But if the marathon does proceed, many runners might not even be allowed to participate because of a travel ban.

The Trump administration has temporarily barred anyone from traveling to the U.S. from China, which has 763 runners registered in the race. The ban was extended Saturday to include people coming from Iran and urged Americans not to travel to regions of Italy and South Korea where the virus has been prevalent.


About a third of the 31,000 registered runners are from outside the U.S., The Boston Globe reported.