Coronavirus: Guinness encourages people to ‘safely celebrate’ St Patrick’s Day as events cancelled

St Patrick’s Day celebrations likely to be affected by coronavirus with parades cancelled in New York and Boston

The coronavirus outbreak has already forced the cancellation of major sporting and public events as the pandemic spreads across the globe.

On Sunday, the Irish government called on all pubs and bars to shut, in addition to closing schools and universities, and with St Patrick’s Day fast approaching, things look like they could get worse.

With less than 24-hours to go before the big day, one drinks brand in particular is likely to see a huge dip in sales.

Guinness has become almost synonymous with St Patrick’s Day as millions of revellers celebrate the big day with a pint of the black stuff.

Last week, the Dublin-based brewery attempted to strike a sombre tone by releasing a video in which it called on the public to unite and look out for one another during the outbreak.

Although the ad does not directly reference Covid-19, it does allude to the fact that this St Patrick’s day will be “different”.

“Don’t worry, we’ll march again,” says an an actor with an Irish accent as stock footage of previous St. Patrick’s Day celebrations plays in the background.

The video – which was created in collaboration with advertising agency Quaker City Mercantile – goes on to say that “on St. Patrick’s Day we are all Irish, but let’s not forget that every day, we are all human.

“What matters is being with people you care about. Whether you are planning to safely celebrate at the pub, or hosting at home, if you can call the people around you friends or family, you’ve already won.

“When you raise a pint of Guinness, also remember to raise each other up.”

In a statement accompanying the sleek video, Guinness announced that it would be committing $500,000 through its Guinness Gives Back Fund to help communities in the US.

The company also said that having been trading for around 260 years it had learned “we’re pretty tough when we stick together”.

According to official reports, there are now 169,387 confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world, with a further 6,513 deaths.

Health experts now say that Europe is the epicentre of the outbreak and many countries including Spain and Italy have been placed on lock down.

On Monday, the UK government announced that it planned to hold daily press briefings following accusations that authorities were being “complacent”.