The second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the WHO Director-General under the International Health Regulations (IHR) (2005) regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus 2019 in the People’s Republic of China, with exportations to other countries, took place on Thursday, 30 January 2020, from 13:30 to 18:35 Geneva time (CEST).

The Committee’s role is to give advice to the Director-General, who makes the final decision on the determination of a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The Committee also provides public health advice or suggests formal Temporary Recommendations as appropriate.

Very informative video from WHO epidemiologist explaining the currently (30 January 2020) known facts of the epidemic.

WHO’s standard recommendations for the general public to reduce exposure to and transmission of a range of illnesses are as follows, which include hand and respiratory hygiene, and safe food practices:

• Frequently clean hands by using alcohol-based hand rub or soap and water
• When coughing and sneezing cover mouth and nose with flexed elbow or tissue – throw tissue away immediately and wash hands
• Avoid close contact with anyone who has fever and cough
• If you have fever, cough and difficulty breathing seek medical care early and share previous travel history with your health care provider
• When visiting live markets in areas currently experiencing cases of novel coronavirus, avoid direct unprotected contact with live animals and surfaces in contact with animals
• The consumption of raw or undercooked animal products should be avoided. Raw meat, milk or animal organs should be handled with care, to avoid cross-contamination with uncooked foods, as per good food safety practices.

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Our Federal and State Governments have published information and advice about the coronavirus.

Below are the links to the State Governments' Health Departments:

VIC, NSW, ACT, QLD, SA, TAS, WA

Within organizations, the Leadership Team supported by their Business Continuity Manager and other resilience professionals, can use a range of proactive strategies to support an effective pandemic response and limit the impact of an outbreak.

The travel industry may experience an outsize impact and disruption from efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Here’s a breakdown of coronavirus’ impact so far on key travel sectors: tourism, aviation, hotels, and business travel.

This is a rapidly evolving situation. International SOS is monitoring closely and updating our 2019-Novel Coronavirus website as more information becomes available. We advise all organisations to continue to monitor this outbreak, proactively communicating with your people to explain the ways to prevent infection, review and implement your plans for pandemic and other infectious disease outbreaks.

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WorldAware intelligence alerts give you timely notification of any significant travel, safety, and security-related incidents that could impact your organization or people. Getting timely notification of such issues or incidents, with applied analysis, gives you and your people the advantage to prepare for and mitigate the threat to your organization and operations.

Companies that rely on manufacturing from facilities in Wuhan, China, are considering alternative suppliers as facilities in the region face potential production delays. The number of coronavirus cases has exceeded 4,500 and the region has implemented a quarantine​ limiting travel in and out of the industrial hub.

The world’s biggest tech companies are facing disruptions to their supply chains from prolonged factory closures and labor shortages in China, as the deadly coronavirus outbreak threatens the nation’s vast manufacturing network.

Operation Yellowhammer is the codename used by the UK Treasury for cross-government civil contingency planning for the possibility of a no-deal Brexit. In the event of exit with no-deal, the UK's unilateral departure from the EU could disrupt, for an unknown duration, many aspects of the relationship between the UK and European Union, including financial transfers, movement of people, trade, customs and other regulations. 

Operation Yellowhammer is intended to mitigate, within the UK, the effects of this disruption, and would be expected to run for approximately three months. It has been developed by the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS), a department of the Cabinet Office responsible for emergency planning. When the UK ceases to be a member of the EU in October 2019, all rights and reciprocal arrangements with the EU end.

The attached document is the leaked report referred to in the Guardian article.

Following Breakthrough’s widely-reported policy brief on Existential Climate-related Security Risk, this latest discussion paper provides supporting evidence for the contentious 3°C scenario. A 3°C scenario, developed in 2007 by US national security analysts, is reproduced in this paper highlighting a proven prescient in foreseeing some of the major socio-political events that have emerged in the last decade.

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Financial credit rating institutions want answers from coastal cities about how they’re preparing for climate-change impacts like sea level rise and whether they can pay for their adaptation plans, the mayor of Honolulu said July 17.

“It’s just frustrating to hear the lip service being given to ‘Oh yes, we now believe in climate change and need to do something’ when every effort to do something about it is rubbished.”