How Corona Virus Is Rewriting The Future Of Business and Law In Uganda and Globally- A Legal Perspective

 

Corona virus also known as COVID-19 is now a global reality. On the global scale, WHO declared the Covid-19 Virus a pandemic, with more than 334,981 cases confirmed and over 15,000 deaths so far in more than 190 countries as on the 24^th of March 2020. It has emerged as an unprecedented and unquestioned threat to global public health and social economic relations in various economies as a whole.

The virus continues to have a terrible impact on the world economy; from Wuhan to other countries, economic activities are closing down with quarantines, there has been mass closure of many traditional physical forums for human interactions and the spread has left many clients in an uncharted territory.

While the course of the crisis continues to evolve and governments around the world, particularly in high-risk countries such as China, Italy, and South Korea mobilize to deal with the immediate threat, long-term strategic impacts also require analysis and strategic planning.

We seek to explore some of the unique legal issues cropping up amidst the growing pandemic that is affecting every country and sector.

THE SITUATION IN UGANDA

Uganda has officially recorded 14 cases of COVID-19 victims as on the 25^th of March, 2020.

The Presidential Directives

On the 18^th and 20^th March 2020, the President of the Republic of Uganda announced the following measures to help in the fight against the spread of COVID 19;

1. Prohibition of all in-coming passengers whether by air, land or water from entering Uganda and the closure of the airport except for cargo flights, emergency landings and UN relief planes.
2. Pending the evolving of an EAC Health Response Plan to the Pandemic by the East Africa Ministers of Health, no person, Ugandan or otherwise, will be allowed to enter Uganda by land or water except for drivers and accompanying crews, not exceeding 3 persons, for cargo transport vehicles ─ trailers, lorries and other cargo vehicles. No buses, mini-buses, salon cars or boda-bodas will be allowed in the country.  Also, pedestrians, walking on foot, or bicycle rider will not be allowed to enter Uganda or to enter Uganda by road, path or water; nor will they be allowed to exit by those means.
3. Closure of all Primary and Secondary schools as well as all the Universities and Tertiary Institutions for one month, starting with Friday, the 20^th of March, 2020.
4. Religious gatherings: prayers in Churches, in Mosques, open air prayers and services on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are banned for 32 days from 18^th March 2020;
5. Mass meetings (political or cultural) ─ Public rallies, conferences, elections, etc. were forbidden for 32 days from 18^th March 2020.
6. Non-agricultural work places: factories, hotels, large plantations, markets, taxi-parks, etc. These should continue functioning but with SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) put out by the Ministry of Health.
7. Large weddings of more than 10 people were banned for 32 days
8. Discos, the dances, bars, sports, music shows, cinemas and concerts were banned for 32 days from 18^th March 2020]]
9. Large funerals were discouraged but any funeral of a corona victim would be conducted by the state.

All these drastic measures have been done to ensure the safety of citizens. However, they have understandably left many businesses facing ever increasing challenges.

Are these measures lawful and if disobeyed, are they punishable by law?

The Constitution of Uganda provides that subject to the law, all Executive authority is vested in the President. The Constitution further provides that human rights can be limited if it is in the public interest. The Presidential guidelines are clearly in the public interest.

The directives are also supported by the provisions of the Public Health Act. The Act allows the Minister to issue guidelines for both infectious diseases and epidemics including the closing of educational institutions, any border point, quarantining of people to mention a few. These measures must be provided in a Statutory Instrument which the President directed must be signed. At the time of the writing, the Statutory Instrument had not been issued.

Furthermore, Article 23 (d) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda provides that No person shall be deprived of personal liberty except for the purpose of preventing the spread of an infectious or contagious disease;

The issue of the Statutory Instrument notwithstanding, the Penal Code Act Section 171 also provides that;

“Any person who unlawfully or negligently does any act which is and which he or she knows or has reason to believe to be likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life commits an offence and is liable to imprisonment for seven years.”

In this regard, it can be argued that the failure to comply with the Presidential directives is an act of negligence especially in light of the available information with regard to COVID 19.

Pending the gazetting of the Statutory Instrument, there remains in the interim, the arsenal of the penal provision above, if these directives are not complied with.

So, in light of these restrictions what happens to contracts that have already been entered into and cannot be performed now?

A legal perspective on how Corona Virus is affecting the economy.

1. Trade and Business Interruption

a)Disruption in supply chains and the threat of legal disputes.

 China, “the world’s factory” and second largest economy in the world, continues to affect the global economy and Uganda in particular. The Uganda Trade Overview of 2017 indicates that Trade between China and Uganda had quadrupled in the last ten years, from around USD.230 Million in 2008 to over USD 1 Billion in 2018. The majority of this trade is Chinese exports to Uganda, which account for about USD.850 Million in trade.

China plays a crucial role in the operation of the global supply chain; and the immediate legal issue presented by the virus is the disruption of business in China, especially for countries like Uganda.

They also automatically affect the revenue collection in Uganda. This is heightened by Uganda being landlocked and its reliance on ports like Mombasa in Kenya that has already been affected by the virus. According to The East African newspaper, the Kenya Ports Authority mentioned that with the outbreak of Corona virus, four major Chinese ships had not docked at the Mombasa Port in the last two months, implying that eight shipments have failed to arrive during the two months.

Contractual principles require specific performance of well executed contracts. The starting point remains the contracts executed by the parties. According to the Parole Evidence rule in the Evidence Act, parties are bound by the four corners of the document that describes their shared intention and how the same is to be executed. This is reiterated in the Contracts Act and the Sale of Goods and Supply of Services Act.

Therefore, with this unforeseen situation, there will definitely be legal disputes, and the business world needs to be prepared to take steps in trying to mitigate the effects of the situation. 

 b)Past transactions

Parties need to explore the option of making modifications to existing business arrangements. Whether these solutions are extensions of deadlines, renegotiation of financing arrangements, or other remedies. Fortunately, most parties would be willing to discuss solutions as indeed the situation affects almost all business players.

c)Future transactions

Any party negotiating a contract right now ought to consider how the spread of the virus might affect their ability to perform the intended obligations. For instance, issues of limited availability of staff, shortage of supplies, time frames for contractual performance, are key considerations for current and future transactions.

 d)Consumer protection

With the spread of the corona virus, there is a pressing need for the government to regulate pricing for crucial commodities in order to protect the consumers from exploitations by suppliers. For instance Kenya established Competition Authority of Kenya and in light of their duties, on 16^th March, 2020, the Kenyan Report published and indicated that the Authority has ordered a supermarket to refund extra money paid from buying hand sanitizer.

Uganda is facing the same predicament with so many suppliers exploiting the spread of the pandemic to exaggerate and hike prices. Whereas the Government of Uganda has the National Competition and Consumer Protection Policy in 2014, the same has not yet translated into law.  The current unregulated conduct by the Traders further justifies the need for a law to protect consumers and regulate supplies of crucial products during such moments.

 

2. Does Corona Virus present an Event of “Force Majeure”?

The current situation seems to have created a defence that may potentially be used by many contractual parties in relation to many, if not all commercial disputes that might arise in the near future as a result of the corona virus known as the defence of “FORCE MAJEURE”

 Force Majeure is a contractual concept commonly contained as a contractual clause that relieves a party from performing its contractual obligation where its performance is impacted by unforeseen circumstances commonly termed as “Acts of God”.

For the concept to apply, a link between the event and the inability to perform the contract must be shown. A party that seeks to rely on a force majeure clause must retain evidence of what constrained its ability to perform its obligations. Countries like Kenya, China continue to define the pandemic as a force majeure event. For instance, the Financial Times reported on the 28^th of February, 2020 that China has issued over 4000 force majeure certificates as a result of the spread of the corona virus.

Any party seeking to assert the force majeure clause has the burden of proving that the event was beyond its control. The party must also show that it has taken reasonable steps to mitigate/avoid the effects of the force majeure event and in situations where prompt notification is a contractual condition, this must be implemented.

However, it is important to respond to the following questions in determining whether the corona virus amounts to force majeure;

1. Is ‘’epidemic’’ and or ‘’pandemic’’ specifically covered as a force majeure event in the contract?
2. If not, is the event of a nature that would fall under general force majeure wording, or has there been a government decision/administrative action preventing performance which meets the political interference language commonly included in definitions of force majeure?
3. Foreseability tests shall also be relevant as some contracts exclude events which could have reasonably been provided against, avoided or overcome.
4. Causation is equally important in establishing the link between the force majeure event and how it hindered performance of the contract.

The consequences of a determination that this pandemic amount to a force majeure event will include the following;

 

1. Relief from performance of obligation hence avoiding the risk of a default termination and an extension of time to target dates.
2. Parties may bear their own costs as a result of non-performance or exceptions may arise where certain costs must be paid.
3. Extended periods of force majeure can also lead to a right for one or more parties to terminate the contract hence the need hold discussions before the deadline on a “without prejudice” basis.

In short, it can be anticipated that, in light of the current crisis, there will be both litigation on the applicability of force majeure clauses as well as a wholesale rewriting of those clauses in future contracts.

1. Some Practical Suggestions on how to mitigate the risk include;
2. Reviewing the contract to determine whether the contract includes a force majeure provision and, if so:
3. Carefully review the definition of force majeure in the contract to determine whether there is any express event incorporating events such as COVID-19 and, if not, whether the general language is sufficient to include COVID-19 and its consequences. If in doubt, it may be helpful to seek legal advice early in the process.
4. Consider those aspects of the relevant contract that you are not able to perform and satisfy yourself that the inability to perform is due to the consequences (direct or indirect) of COVID-19 and not a different reason.
5. Consider and review what steps you are taking as a business to avoid or at least reduce so far as possible the effects of COVID-19 upon your work force and your ability to continue to perform contracts.
6. Consider whether there are any notice requirements to trigger entitlement to relief, including what type of supporting documents must be provided and whether there is any time limit for that notice to be issued.
7. Consider what the consequences of a successful claim for force majeure are.
8. Review the financing or other related documents to determine whether there are any notice provisions that must be complied with in relation to anticipated or actual force majeure claims.
9. Determine whether insurances, such as business interruption insurance or force majeure insurance, may cover any of the expected losses.

It is nevertheless important for any person considering the use of Force majeure, to give notice of invocation of force majeure. This is because, such would be a formal contractual step and it would therefore make perfect commercial sense for the parties to require that invocation be done through a formal written communication.

1. Frustration

If the contract does not have a “force majeure clause”, the general legal principle of ‘’Frustration’’ may come into play. A contract is said to be frustrated if the circumstances render it incapable of performance or because the circumstances render performance radically different from what was contemplated by the parties at the time they entered into the contract. An example is if performance is required to be by way of delivery at a specific time in a specific place and due to acts such as a potential lockdown and the ban on travel, a party fails to either import the said goods or export; such party can seek to be excused from performance on the ground of frustration.

      2.Changes in law

Some contracts may also protect parties against changes in law, and allow claims for additional time and unforeseen costs. Due to the uniqueness and unprecedented nature of the spread of the corona virus and its ripple effects, several policies and laws are continuously being put in place to deal with the situations as and when they arise.

This includes the Statutory Instrument putting in effect the Presidential directives in 1(a) above. For instance with these directives all educational institutions can no longer operate and several businesses are curtailed by virtue of no supplies and other related issues therefore indicating a valid defense for no performance by such parties.

These controls imposed by law may fall within this type of clause and therefore parties seeking to rely on the same can explore this option by indicating how the laws affect their business or contracts directly.

       3.Material Adverse Change

Financial contracts often contain material adverse change (MAC) clauses that allow a financial institution to call an event of default or refuse to perform if the counterparty is subject to a material adverse change. However, parties still ought to consider whether COVID-19 and its ripple effect will/have had a material effect on a party’s ability to perform their obligations in the contract.

This is an option available to parties during the spread of this corona virus because its impact has gravely impacted the economy, security, health travel. Therefore if a transaction falls within any affected sector, a party can successfully avail themselves with this defence to non-performance.

    4.Notices

Where notice is required, it ought to be given to the other party, the notice provisions must be complied with strictly. However, most notices under contracts are required to be served on a physical address, a total quarantine like in Italy would prevent this.

The purpose of service is bringing notice to a party of information or a development in a specific matter. However, if parties agreed that it must be physical service, then the parties are bound to do the same. Therefore, parties need to consider renegotiating new practical options that are able to serve the same purpose such as adopting Artificial intelligence and technology such as emails, WhatsApp, face book to fill the void

      5.Illegality of contracts

A contract in its foundation ought to be legally acceptable as provided for under Section 10 of the Contract’s Act, 2010. It must also be for a lawful object. Therefore, with the new policies and law impositions it is important to question whether illegality shall stand as a defence to allegations of breach from companies curtailed by the laws and policies passed to curb the spread of the virus and mitigate its effects in Uganda.

For instance, the forced closure of all institutions, schools, court, and prohibition on travel makes any act to the contrary illegal and ought to protect all such entities from actions of nonperformance of obligations. Parties ought to pay close attention to all policies and decisions made during this time.

         6.Limitations on liability

Even if the contract has nothing direct to say about corona virus, the contract may contain limitations on, or exclusions of, liability. Clauses of this sort might cap, even exclude, a party’s ability to recover from a counterparty (or its obligation to pay to a counterparty) losses caused by corona virus complications.

The final question will be when does non-performance give a right to terminate the contract, whether for breach or otherwise. Parties need to have “without prejudice” discussions with their counter parts to respond to these questions.

        7.E-Commerce and Artificial intelligence

The current turmoil in trade and business poses a great opportunity for E-commerce businesses in Uganda and worldwide. Online businesses ought to explore this opportunity by first monitoring the market demand and providing alternative quality based options.

These transactions ought to comply with laws such as the Contracts Act, the Electronic Transactions Act, and the Electronic signatures Act. These are empathetic on quality service and consumer protection especially in a health crisis like this one. In E- commerce, businesses are required to provide all the adequate information including their terms and conditions, addresses, terms of payments, particulars of the products being purchased in order to enable the consumer make informed decisions when dealing with the business.

However, it is important to note that since this is uncharted territory, several laws and policies shall be created for the purpose of dealing with unique situations as and when they arise, and all businesses ought to be alert to ensure compliance with the same.

The spread of this virus has also exposed the global need and reliance on artificial intelligence. For instance in China, robots were being used in hospital. Also with people being quarantined the world is linked globally through artificial intelligence tools.

        8.Insurance

Individuals or companies pay insurance to spread risk across a large community, creating a greater degree of financial security, regardless of what challenges might end up materialising. The outbreak of COVID 19 is an unprecedented pandemic hence leaving several companies unprepared.

Companies will want to check what insurance cover they have that might cover corona virus. If a company does have insurance cover, the policy is likely to contain notification requirements, which must be complied with strictly. However, Insurance companies are seldom tolerant of breach even of the smallest of small print.

 In respect of Loans, parties can explore the option of credit insurance. This requires that the underlying borrower had a legal obligation to pay, as it insures credit rather than legal risk. Accordingly, where it is excused from its payment obligations as a result of the outbreak, for example, because of a force majeure clause, there may well be no cover for the resulting non-payment.

There is also need to explore the option of filling business interruption insurance claims as a result of lost sales and interrupted supply arrangements.

      9.Considerations for financial institutions

As the Covid-19 outbreak continues to spread, there has been increased focus from financial services regulators around the world on the contingency plans of regulated financial firms.

A financial institution refers to one that collects funds from the public or other institutions and invests them in financial assets. They include Banks, credit unions, savings, and loans associations, investment companies, brokerage firms, insurance companies, and mortgage companies.

These are regulated by several laws including the Financial Institutions Act, the Bank of Uganda Act, the Tier Four Micro Finance Institutions and Money Lender’s Act and the Micro Finance Deposit-Taking Institutions Act and several others that regulate the day to day management of financial firms.

Financial institutions are in a unique position because of their high dependence on the economy and volatile markets. This is in respect to capital markets, real Estate, mortgages, interest rates, stock exchange and so on. They are still required to deliver key financial services and to protect financial market infrastructure from disruption.

1. Financial Contracts

Financial institutions ought to consider how the outbreak may affect their ability to comply with contractual obligations under financial and other contracts.

      2.Loan performance

The spread of the corona virus affects the ability of borrowers to pay. Firms should also consider whether they can rely on force majeure clauses to excuse non-performance. In addition, the outbreak may result in unscheduled non-business days which may affect payment and delivery obligations, as well as other provisions that refer to “business days”.

Therefore, banks may agree on delayed payments from individual borrowers affected by illness or by the impact of the outbreak on their employers and provide additional support to small or other businesses adversely affected by the outbreak.

       3.Mitigate risk

As part of their action plans, firms may want to consider how to mitigate the potential impact of any disruption or delay on major ongoing projects, such as regulatory implementation, litigation-related deadlines especially with the closure of courts in Uganda.

       4.Regulatory measures

On 20^th of March, 2020, The Bank of Uganda put in place sound measures to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 that financial institutions ought to adopt and observe including;

1. Providing exceptional liquidity assistance for a period of one year to financial institutions supervised by BOU that may require it.
2. Waive limitations on restructuring of credit facilities at financial institutions that may be at risk of going into distress due to Covid-19.
3. Put in place a mechanism to minimize the likelihood of sound business going into insolvency due to lack of credit.
4. Continue to engage mobile network operator and commercial banks to reduce fees on mobile money transactions. This has been implemented by networks such as MTN and Airtel that are providing services such as transfer, MTN Momo pay at no cost.

5. Data Protection Challenges

As the Corona virus outbreak continues to spread, companies are implementing an increasing number of measures to prevent contamination of their premises and amongst their staff. These measures sometimes require them to collect, analyse and share information about individuals, to comply with Health and Safety regulations, but it does raise data protection challenges. Data collectors should ensure that they abide by the law in regard to disclosing personal data in light of the Data protection and Privacy Act.

However, with the doctor-patient confidentiality required with the medical Hippocratic oath the nature of the COVID-19 requires that persons infected are known to ensure precautions are taken. One would think that the spread of the pandemic has created a situation where doctors have to share information that ordinarily they are not supposed to without the consent of the patient hence pausing an ethical question to consider appropriate measures when faced with another similar situation.

These questions also emerge in the employer-employee relationship, but they also arise when dealing with other stakeholders who are in contact with the workplace, namely customers, contractors and other visitors.

Also, precautionary measures are being put in place by companies, banks and government entities. One of these measures is close of business and having employees work remotely from home. The downside of this is that several businesses such as law firms are at a higher risk of breaching their duty to protect client information and maintain confidentiality as prescribed in Regulation 7 of The Advocates (Professional Conduct) Regulations. This high risk is caused by the increased use of communication channels that may not be implementing basic security controls and as such renders such communication to be vulnerable to hacks and interception.

It is therefore important for any roll out remote work facilities to be done in a manner that ensures some basic and elementary safeguards against vulnerability from data hacks.

6. Electronic Signatures and execution of documents

One of the major precautions being put in place globally to address the spread of Corona virus (COVID 19) is recommending or requiring many people to work from home. This has raised the question of how to execute documents in these circumstances and whether it is possible to legally execute documents by electronic signature.

The Electronic Signatures Act, in Section 2 defines an electronic signature as data in electronic form affixed to or logically associated with a data message, which may be used to identify the signatory in relation to the data message, and indicates the signatory’s approval of the information contained in the data message and includes an advance electronic signature and the securities signature. However, it should be noted that scanned signatures are not electronic signatures and parties ought to be mindful of the same.

However, in all cases, the appropriate method of execution will depend on the applicable facts such as the governing law for the document in question, the type of document, the form of electronic signature used and any cross border implications to be considered.

7. Employer Challenges and Legal Considerations

On the 20^th of March, 2020, the Minster of State for Labour, Employment and Industrial Relations, Honourable Mwesigwa Rukutana delivered a press statement drawing the attention of Employers, workers and the general public on employment matters. He intimated that Employers should maintain Employees on monthly pay and labour externalisation was extended for 32 days.

In light of the above, it is important to consider the following;

1.Safety in workplaces

Companies must place emphasis on employee safety in light of Section 13 and 14 of Occupational Safety and Health Act. The employer is under an obligation to take as far as reasonably practicable all measures for the protection of their workers. To mitigate the risks of spreading illness, precautionary measures and relevant information should be considered.

 2.Unlawful Discrimination

Discrimination in employment shall be unlawful according to S.6 (3) of the Employment Act. All actions such as mandating health screenings and stopping certain employees from working ought to be based on legitimate reason such as recent travel history or close contact of an employee to avoid such claims.

3.Sick pay, Paid leave

If there is a requirement that the employee(s) don’t come to the office, there will be issues of whether the employer will be required to provide equipment for remote work from the employee’s home and, if not, whether the employee is entitled to pay while exercising the government recommended social distancing as a preventive measure.

Changes to work arrangements may create an effect on employees’ pay, holiday and sick leave entitlements, particularly if employees are restrained from working due to compulsory or recommended social distancing.

Generally, if an employee is ready, willing and able to perform their work remotely from home, the employee should be paid in the usual way. Employees should also be encouraged to take pending annual leave and or leave without pay upon agreement with their employers.

Furthermore, Section 55 of the Employment Act provides that an employer incapable of working due to sickness or injury is entitled to sick pay. In the event that they are still sick at the expiration of the second month, the law permits the employer to terminate the contract. It is uncertain how long this pandemic will last, but it appears with the emergency precautions lasting only 32 days (as per the Presidential Guidelines of the 20^th March 2020), it is unclear how employees will be protected in case of any further extensions. This provision is however limited in its scope, as it only deals with sick employees and not employees who are away on the basis of self isolation.

However, if an employee’s inability to work is the result of government guidelines, the question here is that will they still receive salary for an extended and unlimited period, and if so, what would happen, if the employer is not able to meet the wage bill?

Termination and restructuring

It is generally agreed that the Covid-19 Pandemic and measures being implemented to limit the spread, will cause massive disruptions to the social infrastructure and huge economic losses to many entities and employers for that matter. Many employers are therefore likely going to experience major challenges in meeting its wage bills in the midst of limited economic activities and therefore revenues.

In the case of unionized workers, the parties should explore the provisions in the Collective Bargaining Agreement in case of layoffs and redundancies become the best option while observing requirements under Section 40(3) (a) and Sections 84 of the Employment Act.

The engagement of the employees who are under casual terms may be reviewed and some of them can be advised to stay home.

Employers ought to take precautionary steps in respect of termination of employees and restructuring during the spread of the pandemic as it can be anticipated that the Courts of law may try to find ways to lessen the impact of termination on an employee if litigation in labor disputes arises and the same shall have adversary effects on such a Employer’s reputation.

It is therefore important for employers to take note of some of the key considerations that the Industrial Court or the Labour officers in Uganda would consider in cases of terminations;

1. The failure to pay employee wages is a justifiable ground for termination of employment contracts;
2. The termination of employment contracts has to be done in accordance with the procedure stipulated under the Employment Act;
3. The burden of proving that the Employer was indeed incapable of paying employee wages will ultimately be for the Employer to prove;

The above notwithstanding, it is imperative for the employers to understand that, depending on the length of the recommended public health measures such as staying at home will last, in some cases, terminating employees on account of redundancy or economic misfortunes of the Employer, may actually be more expensive than riding the wave of Covid-19. It is therefore important for more relevant advice to be sought in this regard.

8. The Impact On Mortgages And Real Estate

Due to the high risk passed on households and individuals due to the spread of the virus, the BBC reported on the 10^th of March, 2020 that Italy suspended mortgage payments amid the outbreak as part of the measures to soften the economic blow of corona virus on households and individuals.

In the context of a country like Uganda, individuals may continue going to work and taking the daily risk because most businesses are run on rented buildings both uptown and down town and unless a policy is passed by government addressing the issue of rent and mortgage repayments during this period, no individual or company is willing to take the financial risk of not working for over three weeks and still having to meet the existing financial obligations.

Whereas Bank of Uganda issued Regulatory measures on the 20^th March, 2020 that allows the waiver of limitations on restructuring of credit facilities at financial institutions that may be at risk of going into distress due to Covid-19, it remains to be seen how such will be used to relieve the financial stress on many entities/ people.

9. Managing risk of litigation

On the 19^th of March 2020, the Judiciary announced that courts shall be closed for the next 32 days. This only means that all sectors such as prisons, police, and public/private prosecution offices ought to succumb to the negative impact this has on the already high case backlog in the system. Individuals with minor offences urgent and pressing matters remain stranded on how to seek legal redress.

However, a remedy lies in the provision for application for Certificate of Urgency under the Judicature Court Vacation Rules for matters of extreme urgency thereafter one ought to consider exploring the option of the Judicature (Visual-Audio Link) Rules. However, the court systems ought to have a management system to deal with the case backlog that shall arise once the outbreak is under control.

CONCLUSION

With the situation changing daily and with new cases constantly being diagnosed, it can be anticipated that this crisis will not abate quickly and entities ought to make crucial response decisions when they still have a chance to mitigate the negative impacts.

Caveat: The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.