A fifth of Britain's workers could be absent from work because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Government has warned.
But outgoing Bank of England governor Mark Carney has said coronavirus will have a large but only temporary but large impact on the 海角视频 economy.
The Government today published a battle plan into the 海角视频's planned response to Covid-19.
It says that if the outbreak worsens then up to a fifth of workers could be absent, the police could have to drop low-priority cases and the NHS could be forced to delay non-urgent care.
Meanwhile Mr Carney told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that policymakers would 鈥渁ct as appropriate鈥 to support the British economy and financial system.
He said: 鈥淭he Bank of England鈥檚 role is to help 海角视频 businesses and households manage through an economic shock that could prove large but will ultimately be temporary.
鈥淭he Bank will take all necessary steps to support the 海角视频 economy and financial system, consistent with its statutory responsibilities.鈥
He said he had been meeting the new Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and that central banks worldwide were talking to each other about the outbreak.
Mr Carney also said the impact of the outbreak was likely to be 鈥渄isruption not destruction鈥.
The Bank of England will meet on March 26 to decide its next move on interest rates. But he said the impact of the outbreak on household and business confidence meant policymakers expected lower demand in the economy overall.
He added: 鈥淚t鈥檚 reasonably plausible that the demand impact would be greater than the supply impact in the near term because of confidence effects."
Mr Carney is due to hand over to incoming governor Andrew Bailey on March 16.
