Disease outbreak

Infectious diseases can cause significant health issues due to the large number of people that could be affected in a short space of time, including those with the possibility of severe symptoms.

Scenarios could range from significant outbreaks which spread slowly and can be more easily contained (e.g. in a hospital, care home or school) or a pandemic, such as Covid-19, which could cause large numbers of fatalities and put the population at risk.

How you could be affected

A pandemic occurs when a new virus / strain emerges and could:

• infect people rapidly
• spread from person to person
• cause illness in a high proportion of the people infected
• spread widely because most people will have little or no immunity to the new virus / strain
• cause significant numbers of deaths
• cause disruption to all sectors of society (schools, healthcare and businesses)