A few months ago, ISIO suggested in articles that security managers must ensure that there is a contingency in the budget to obtain equipment or skills training in case of an unknown threat that could arrive out of the blue. Any responsible managing or finance director must consider allocating funding and preparing for this emerging threat because it has life impacting or life and death possibilities.

To fight further spread of the new coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China and globally, and protect states with weaker health systems, the international community has launched a US$675 million preparedness and response plan covering the months of February through to April 2020.

Let’s put this into perspective. In 2019, the Centre for Disease Control reports that 61,200 people died from the common flu virus. That’s 168 deaths per day! Compared to Coronavirus that was first reported on December 31st with 213 deaths in total until January 31st. Based on last years statistics, 5,208 people have died of the common flu in that same time period.