Football fixtures, including Town’s game at Bristol Rovers on Saturday, are set to go ahead as planned in front of fans this weekend but the Government is “considering” whether to ban big public events, including sport.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke at a press conference this afternoon following an earlier meeting of the emergency COBRA committee.
Despite the Government having moved to the ‘delay’ phase of its coronavirus plan there is no suggestion that football fixtures and other sporting events will immediately be affected.
"We are considering the question of banning major public events, including sporting fixtures,” Johnson said.
"The scientific advice is this has little effect on the spread - but it does place a burden on other public services."
He 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 explained the thinking further: "Of course there is a risk, but on average one person infects two or three others," he said.
"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."
Earlier today, it was reported that Premier League and EFL games would be played behind closed doors, however, those claims were premature.
Town are being guided by the EFL with their message continuing to be one of business as usual. Yesterday, club secretary Stuart Hayton outlined Town’s position and what may happen should the situation change and games are played behind closed doors.
"We’re taking guidance from the EFL and their instruction at the moment is that it should be business as usual," he told the club site.
"The club has held an internal meeting to discuss the way forward if the situation changes.
"We have discussed the potential to bring in a mobile sanitiser unit, as was used at Twickenham for the rugby last weekend, for the game against Portsmouth at Portman Road on 21st March.
"We've also looked at the possibility of streaming matches free of charge to supporters should we be instructed to play behind closed doors like they have been in Italy and Europe.
"Like all businesses, an internal email has been sent around with guidelines about best practice regarding hygiene and what the remote working procedure would be for each department if required."