The UK government is considering banning sporting fixtures amid the coronavirus outbreak – but it will not happen immediately.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said 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.
“We are considering banning major public events like sporting fixtures,” said Johnson.
“The scientific advice is this has little effect on the spread – but it does place a burden on other public services.”
Johnson added: “We are guided by the science; there is no medical reason at the moment to ban such events.
“We are not saying no to that sort of measure, we are keeping it up our sleeves. But it is very, very important in order to maximise our interventions that we get the timing right.”
Chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said cancelling sporting events is not a “major way to tackle this epidemic”.
“Of course there is a risk,” he said. “But on average one person infects two or three others.
“You therefore have a very low probability of infecting a large number of people in a stadium, or a rather higher probability of infecting people very close to you, and that means most of the transmission tends to takes place with friends and colleagues in close environments, not in the big environments.
“It is true that any cancellations of things can have some effect (but) if you then get a displacement activity, when everyone congregates somewhere else, you may have perversely an increased risk, particularly in an indoors environment.
“So it doesn’t mean you should at some point make the decision for the resilience point that has been discussed, but this is not a major way to tackle this epidemic.
“The major ways are to try and reduce and delay the transmission across households and people who have become infected and that why that is the concentration of the first actions.”
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European football’s governing body Uefa has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday in which the possibility of postponing Euro 2020 by one year is an option being discussed.
Seven of the tournament’s matches are set to take place at Wembley Stadium in London, while others are due to be held in Glasgow and Dublin.
Top flight football in Spain, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands and the United States has been suspended amid the outbreak, while Manchester City’s Champions League last-16 second leg tie against Real Madrid, due to take place on Tuesday, has been postponed.
Three Leicester City first-team players are self-isolating after showing symptoms of the virus but the Premier League looks set to continue as normal.
Ireland’s FA has announced all football under its jurisdiction has been suspended until 29 March.
Elsewhere in sport, the Australian Grand Prix has been called off while tennis’ ATP Tour has shut down for six weeks.
In rugby union, the Pro14 season has been suspended indefinitely while the NBA and NHL have suspended their seasons.
