The infectious agent driving the ongoing pneumonia outbreak (the 2019-nCoV) appears to have transitioned from animals into humans, with the Huanan seafood wholesale market in Wuhan, China, representing the most likely source [1,2,3,4,5]. Since then, cases have been recorded in other countries, and initial estimates suggest a hospital fatality risk of around 14% [6], although estimates of disease severity early in an outbreak are often imprecise [7,8,9]. Even countries without confirmed cases have been on high alert. For example, even prior to the two cases in the United Kingdom on 31 January 2020, officials were reported to be attempting to trace as many as 2000 visitors that had travelled to that country from Wuhan [10].