Coronavirus (COVID-19) – 5 things you can do to protect yourself and your community

In recent weeks cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) have been seen in an increasing number of countries across the world and we expect to see more cases here in the UK over the coming days and weeks.

The UK has well-established plans to deal with outbreaks of infectious disease and everyone can play an important role in making these plans work, slowing down the spread of coronavirus.

We try to slow the spread of coronavirus for a number of important reasons:

Firstly, we are still learning about COVID-19. At the moment we believe that the majority of people who get the disease will experience a mild illness, but because this is a new virus we are not complacent, and our scientists will continue to learn from evidence emerging both here and internationally.

Secondly, though we believe most people will have a mild illness, some older people or people with pre-existing health conditions will experience severe illness and we need to protect them.