Another case in Croatia, he had recently gone to Italy to see a champions league game.

This could well force the hands of the Irish to postpone their up coming match with Italy. I understand its very much under consideration at this point.

In all likelihood that game will be postponed - no cases in Ireland at present and they will wish to keep it that way.

This weekend half of the Serie A football games will be behind closed doors ( no fans). Could they do that?

Nice if HMRC could announce any costs related to this would be tax deductable this year, Brian? Also - service providers could make special deals available. Could it work?

Roger

We shall never know the ratio - some may have become infected between testing negative and actually disembarking, but others will have produced a false negative (false negatives have been reported from every country which has had more than a few cases - that is why two tests are usually carried out on suspected cases).

284 new cases this morning for South Korea but they are testing thousands. 

I suspect it would be an administrative nightmare and open to abuse. Much simpler to make an across the board tax cut for 12 months and encourage companies to move towards home working for the foreseeable future.   

That makes sense to me, Brian. Having worked from home, self-employed for a while, i know what a boost that would be to a lot of folks, not to mention companies. However, with all the poisoned financial chalices the government gave itself at the election, I doubt there will be a lot of give in the system!

R.

There are still people that actually bolt things together and cut metal and bend pipes, which is quite tricky to do in your front room. Add health, utility, law enforcement and transport etc and I’d imagine a lockdown will have a huge impact.

A part of me thinks the global spread of CVD is not containable and we should just let it go ‘wild’ and focus resources on treating the most serious cases rather than trying to prevent the spread. This might not be popular of course.

My manager has already sat down with me to discuss the virus and explained they will support my decision to self isolate of there is an outbreak similar to Italy.

Yes but many more people can work from home than do. In Japan they have urged staff to work from home.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-japan/japan-urges-firms-to-have-staff-work-from-home-over-coronavirus-soccer-postponed-idUSKCN20J0EB

There is a logic to what you say, NSR - as we know one day the outbreak will be over and the disease will reach a [hopefully] less visible equilibrium. There will have been deaths, many of them amongst the most vulnerable, some of the even merciful. However, many of us would presumably all say "I hope it isn't me." and be willing to put up with the inconvenience of improvised biosecurity and quarantine measures for now. Would you really push the "go wild" button?

In the case of animal disease - which I do know about - I am aware of alleged past cases of deliberate spread of infection for the very reasons you describe.

Roger

The Swedish/Danish company I freelance for has sent a flyer out to all staff this morning on corona-virus. It states that if you feel unwell, you should self isolate and work from home (I work from home in any case) and any who have recently visited China or SK should self isolate in such manner for two weeks on returning to Denmark - oddly, it does not mention those Danes who have been to Italy. Last week was half term in Sweden and Denmark and plenty go on ski holidays to Italy, so that is an odd omission, unless you see it in the context of not wanting to upset another EU country.

Extract:

"Can I/my team member go to China on business trip?

No

Why don’t you put alcohol based hand rub everywhere?

It’s more or as effective to wash your hands in running water and soap than using alcohol based hand rub. Alcohol based hand rub is placed at strategic places as a complement to soap and water.

Can I wear a face mask to work?

A face mask does not protect you from getting infected and is not advised to use. To reduce the risk of getting sick wash your hands often and avoid having your hands and fingers in your face.

Who can I contact if I’m afraid?

Contact the local health authorities.

Can I work from home?

This is a discussion you need to have with your leader. If you get sick you should as always stay at home and focus on getting better."

Germany reports two more cases:

Man critically ill in Germany

Two more people in Germany have tested positive for coronavirus, with one of them in a critical condition:

• A 47-year-old man from the Heinsberg district of North Rhine-Westphalia is in hospital in Düsseldorf. He is critically ill. All schools and kindergartens in the district will remain closed on Wednesday


• A 25-year-old man living in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg tested positive after recently returning from a trip to Milan

This brings the number of cases to 18 in Germany.

I'm not defending them, I'm saying some sanctions should be lifted so they can get masks etc to contain the virus and get outside help from the WHO or whatever

 Yes, its a vile regime, but time to put politics to one side

Meanwhile the selloff continues with the FTSE down almost 2% again.

The stupid thing with the FTSE is that it hasn't bubbled like the US stock markets, but follows the falls. It should be a much smaller correction in the FTSE, but because they basically just follow the US we have the percentage falls as them.

A couple of months of not looking how your pension is doing coming up.

On that topic I would agree with you. However, I am not sure the Iranian regime would be receptive to WHO intervention, since the truth of the situation on the ground there would inevitably be revealed. The reality is that Iran has thousands of cases.

That's good hopefully many/most companies will do similar things. But we are in uncharted territory here so who knows.

France reports 3 new cases including one death.

Yes, I have noticed this as well. Often if the DOW drops on opening, the FTSE will follow - more often than not the DOW then corrects upwards.

The FTSE really does lag behind the dow

On the plus side (for young folk who want to buy) property could become a lot cheaper if we have a mega corona-cull. Supply and demand would be radically altered. 

Depending on your age it's more accurate to see the fall in the markets as a great opportunity to boost your pension pot, as your monthly contributions will buy more shares. It's only a problem if you're about to retire and haven't taken steps to de-risk.

Indeed.