Tests are due back later today on the suspected victim of the Coronavirus who landed at Dublin Airport yesterday on a flight from Moscow.
If it comes back negative it is surely just a matter of time though with the world Health Organisation likely to declare it as a global pandemic and efforts to halt it at source in Wuhan in China seemingly failing.
Cases have been confirmed in the UK, US and across South East Asia. More cases have been recorded in China already than was the case with the Sars virus when that struck and caused global disruption in 2003.
The estimated cost of that was $30 billion to the world economy and this could be worse. As an example, much of the Chinese economy is in shutdown at the moment and in Hong Kong, they have closed all schools for the entire month of February.
The timeframe for this outbreak is along similar lines to the 2001 outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in Ireland and the UK when Ireland last went into a virtual shut down mode with a serious knock-on impact on sport.
If the Coronavirus spreads, and the panic generated by social media which wasn’t around in with Foot and Mouth or Sars does likewise, we could yet be in for a major shutdown on the movement of people and impact on sporting fixtures.
Back in 2001 the St Patrick’s Day Parade and festivities were postponed from March to May. It was that serious.
Three of Ireland’s games in that year’s Six Nations Championship were also postponed with games away to Wales and Scotland and at home to England taking place in September and October rather than in February and March.
The Cheltenham Festival was not run in March after a breach of the exclusion zone which had been placed around the racecourse though plans were in place to restrict Irish horse from travelling anyway.
All inter-county GAA Fixtures were postponed between February 25th and April 1st as restrictions on movement were encouraged by Government and adhered to by the country as a whole.
If that was the impact to protect against a disease that impacted animals and the economy but not human health, what might we expect in terms of restrictions to try and combat the worst effects of this threat to human health?
The timeframe of getting a grip on a pandemic like this is normally at its most important in the early weeks up to maybe six which would mean less impact on the Olympic Games and Paralympics but it is something to factor in for administrators looking to world Government for guidance.
The passing of time lessens the memory of disruption but even this cursory glance back over the impact on sport in 2001 suggests it is not something we can afford to take lightly.
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