Italy is in lockdown, St Patrick's Day parades have been cancelled, Six Nations matches are postponed. What do you do if you were planning to travel to any or all of these events?
RTÉ's Consumer Affairs correspondent Fran McNulty says the Government's advice not to travel to any part of Italy has actually improved the situation for Irish fans.
"Travel disruption cover will kick in" and, in terms of refunds, "your hand is really strengthened when there is official Government advice".
For places like Paris, where the France v Ireland Six Nations rugby match was due to be played this Saturday, "a lot of people are going to lose out".
Paris is not in a restricted area so rugby fans fall into two categories.
"If they're on packages, chances are they will roll over to whenever the fixture is rescheduled.
"But if you've booked your own flights, if you booked hotels online, you're probably going to lose out."
Consumer journalist Siobhán Maguire says some travel companies have become more flexible.
"There's a huge level of goodwill" where the travel industry is concerned "because all of this is unprecedented".
Cruise companies, for example, have introduced new measures to reassure travellers.
"Royal Caribbean, one of the larger companies, has launched the 'Cruise With Confidence' package which allows anyone who has a cruise booked from now to July to cancel." Some terms and conditions apply.
And what if you get sick abroad?
Gearóid Gilley, head of Customer Services at VHI Healthcare, says the European Health Insurance Card is "a really important document to bring with you because it does entitle you to the public health services of the country you're visiting (in Europe)".
In terms of how flexible VHI might be on claims which don't fall into the strict terms and conditions of policy coverage, he says "it's important to say that there will be various events into the future that we're going to look at on a case-by-case basis".
Reporting; Lisa Pereira
