The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the outbreakof the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, dubbed Covid-19 on Tuesday, aninternational public health emergency. The outbreak is not confinedby national borders and increasingly looks like a pandemic, withmore than 1,100 people dead and 45,000 infected across 27countries. Hundreds of Americans have been evacuated from China,and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hasissued a Level 3 travel warning, advising that all nonessentialtravel to China be avoided due to the ongoing outbreak.

As a hub for international travel and tourism, South Floridabusinesses are hardly immune from the economic consequences of thisepidemic. Around the world, travel and events have been postponedor canceled and supply chains have been disrupted. For example, 10percent of the worldwide supply of flat panels for televisions andother electronic devices are manufactured in Wuhan, China (thevirus's epicenter), suggesting an imminent impact on electronicsmanufacturing.