London 7s could be affected due to COVID-19 outbreak

The London 7s could be affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak as the United Kingdom government is considering banning sporting fixtures amid the coronavirus outbreak - but it will not happen immediately.

BBC News reports that Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the UK will move to the "delay" phase of its plan to tackle the virus.

There have been 596 confirmed cases across the UK and 10 deaths.

Johnson says they are considering banning major public events like sporting fixtures.

He says the scientific advice is this has little effect on the spread - but it does place a burden on other public services.

Johnson adds they are guided by the science; there is no medical reason at the moment to ban such events.

He says they are not saying no to that sort of measure, they are keeping it up their sleeves adding but it is very, very important in order to maximise their interventions that they get the timing right.

Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said cancelling sporting events is not a "major way to tackle this epidemic".

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