Date: 24 February 2020

Traveltrust is carefully monitoring the state-of-affairs surrounding the Coronavirus outbreak.

The FCO is currently advising against all travel to Hubei Province, and against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China. South Korea and Italy have been impacted by the second and third most cases respectively, with Italy now isolated at least 10 towns in northern regions to halt the spread.

UK nationals are advised to leave China where possible and the FCO have introduced advanced monitoring at airports with direct flights from China. Anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and is experiencing cough or fever or shortness of breath, should stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild.

Adapting to the ongoing crisis

Until recently, the crisis has been largely confined to China and East Asian regions. However, with growing outbreaks in Italy and Iran, concerns are growing that unless international action is taken soon, the virus could become even more difficult to contain. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, has expressed concerned over the ‘narrowing window of opportunity’ to tackle Covid-19.

Safeguarding the well-being of company travellers is our primary concern. Here are some useful points to help define an effective strategy:

• Work closely with your travel management advisors to make temporary revisions to your travel policies
• Avoid travel to affected destinations and those travelling back from those locations should self-quarantining for two weeks
• Provide education and information on the virus — be brief and repeat what official sources have stated without adding information.
• Consider a temporary travel opt-out policy — employers should consider temporarily suspending travel directly to a region with a high number of coronavirus cases.