Why Chesterfield's game against Dover Athletic is still going ahead despite coronavirus outbreak

Speaking after an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the latest response to the outbreak of the virus, the Prime Minister said a ban on major events was under consideration but would not be enforced at this time.

“We are considering banning major public events like sporting fixtures,” Mr Johnson said. “The scientific advice is this has little effect on the spread - but it does place a burden on other public services.”

Many other sporting competitions across the world have been postponed including Spain and Italy’s top flights, as well as the F1 Australian Grand Prix.

It appears no such measures will be taken with this weekend’s round of fixtures in English football, though the situation could change rapidly.

The country’s chief science adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, explained the thoughts behind not cancelling sporting events.

He said: "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 and a rather higher probability of infecting people very close to you.

"And that means that most of the transmission actually tends to take place with friends and colleagues and those in close environments - and not in the big environments.

"Though it is true that any cancellation of things can have some effect, if you then get a displacement activity where you end up with everyone congregating somewhere else, you may actually perversely have an increased risk, particularly in an indoor environment.

"So it doesn't mean you shouldn't at some point make the decision from a resilience point but this is not a major way to tackle this epidemic."