Today Boris Johnson confirmed that the UK is moving from the contain phase to the delay phase of the Coronavirus pandemic. He was very direct, emphasising the seriousness of the Virus as much more virulent than the common Flu. He was also very blunt to point out that although there have only been 10 deaths many more loved ones will die. He went on to say that the true number of cases were many thousands more than the official figure of 596 and much more of the countries population will become infected. There is nothing the Government or NHS can do to stop the spread and the main aim now is to delay instances as long as possible into the warmer months of the year where there are less flu and respiratory illnesses, giving the NHS a better chance at helping those most affected.
Realistically a large percentage of the population will become infected with Coronavirus and the worst case estimation is at 80%. A number of measures are likely to be introduced including future quarantine of entire households where just one person is infected. Currently the government have announced 4 key steps and it is certainly time to start planning how your business will cope.
- UK to move into delay stage to tackle Coronavirus.
- Elderly people in poor health to stay at home.
- All international school trips to be cancelled.
- Only people in hospital two be tested. (People coming from abroad will no longer be tested as localised outbreaks are impossible to contain anyway.)
- Everyone exhibiting flu like symptoms such as a fever of persistent cough will be asked to self isolate.
Start to prepare your business for the Coronavirus
For your business, it is time to seriously consider sending certain members of staff off to work remotely from home. This not only reduced the risk of infection spreading in the workplace but also on their commute. Warehouse staff will obviously have to come into work for your business to continue running but staff members working in Customer Support, Accounting, SEO, Amazon sponsored listing and eBay promoted listing optimisation, Staff listing new items and almost anyone who’s main work is computer based.
Businesses big or small can be impacted by the spread of the Virus so make sure you’re taking all action needed for the survival of your company.
21 Responses
Self-employed/one-person operations will all but shut down for the next weeks/months and have to either apply for Universal Credit (no idea how this will work yet, since self-employed people running businesses over 1 year old can’t claim the tax credits element under the current rules), take out credit cards or live off savings if they have that luxury. Especially if they are older or have an underlying health condition and/or live with someone who does. For many of us it is just not worth the risk and I for one will be shutting up shop until May, June, or whenever the situation is under control.
There’s a lot of misinformation and fear mongering being driven by the media and even the experts (which are almost always wrong) and too many sheep are buying into the hype. Same people I’m sure that are all over internet comment sections predicting doomsday and going out buying 1 year’s worth of toilet paper, filling their carts with water, hand sanitzer, as if they would never have to leave their homes for food? Absolutely ridiculous. Coronavirus is NOT more contagious than common influenza (see wiki link below) and seems to be slightly more dangerous for the elderly so far. That’s all! Some will say there’s no vaccination for it which is true but that does NOT mean humanity is ending! Vaccinations for influenza are a 50/50 chance of success IF the correct strain was chosen for that season. Not being vaccinated does NOT mean you’re going to be seriously ill or die from influenza OR coronavirus. This is being blown WAY out of proportion!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_reproduction_number
Wow
Dav, you sound like another one of those people who says “it can’t/won’t happen here”.
Of course scaremongering is dangerous, but so is burying your head in the sand.
The common flu doesn’t cause the stock market to crash either… investors don’t get spooked without a good reason
As mail order business I think we’re particularly exposed as we are reliant on couriers. With couriers doing 120-150 drops per day, plus collections, they are somewhat more at risk than those of us working in one location.
All it takes is one person in the couriers depot to become infected and that’ll surely shut down the entire depot for a couple of weeks. The risk of having someone who is possibly infected delivering parcels and spreading it around would be too greater risk for them to take.
@dav
were delighted your done rebuking nonsense
you spend most of your life sensationalising ebays failings
yet discount an actual emergency that kills people
When it’s said and done and the actual numbers come in including estimated unreported cases the numbers of actual sickness and death is going to go way down. Near the same range as, guess what, the common flu. This is a worse flu season than usual as well. Why is that not being reported? Because “common flu” or “influenza” doesn’t get the clicks like “coronavirus” does. This is another flu-like virus that comes around once in awhile since the beginning of mankind but the problem now is the media driving everyone into a frenzy. People so easily go into a panic. It’s out of control and the sheep are buying into it big time. Example are the few dummies above that think this is the apocalypse lol. You’re the ones being sensationalistic, not myself.
Looked up some random facts for those of you that are overblowing the real seriousness of this along with the media coverage and hysteria:
Seasonal flu deaths: 291,000 to 646,000 yearly
Food poisoning deaths: 420,000 yearly
Falling deaths: 527,000 yearly
Suicide deaths: 817,000 yearly
Auto traffic deaths: 1.35 million yearly
Workplace deaths: 2.3 million yearly
You never see daily tallies of these things in the media do you? People need to get a fvcking grip. Coronavirus is not the Black Death, nor anywhere near any of the above or many other random causes. I didn’t even include a very long list of medical conditions that dwarf all the above numbers. Think of whatever else you like and look up the facts yourselves. This is a small blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things. But if you wanna keep believing it’s the end of the world, sure go ahead and hide cowering in fear inside your homes for months.
Its the intensity of deaths over a short period not the total compared to other infections
That matters
The health services are swamped
A little like
If you all your Receive all your yearly rain in 2 weeks you get washed away ?
so where are ebay and paypal in all this
what are they doing to mitigate this crisis ?
whats the situation with paypal loans and ebay fees