I think it's better to approach this matter rationally and to avoid panic and hysteria, but as somebody who lives in Italy and who would spend approx 25 weeks abroad per year on business trips, I would suggest to be mentally prepared for duller times...
Last week I was in Kiev on business, although concerned by the news, I would have never expected the situation to excalate to this level with schools closed for probably a month now, flights cut down by at least 25%, tourism down to 80% in certain areas, all within a couple of weeks.
I flew back to Venice from Vienna on an empty plane, at the arrivals there might have been 10 people waiting for their luggage on saturday morning.
If World Health Organization declares Corona virus to be pandemic, it means that the organization itself might be able to dictate specific safety measures to governments which might affect public transportation, social gatherings and much more.
As already said, elderly people, especially with health-related issues, are much more at risk, hence the high number of deaths registered in Italy which has a very old population compared to many other countries. At least two thirds of these corona-related deaths are due to pre-existing health issues.
When contracting corona virus, many of the elderly people require intensive care in hospitals, due to breathing difficulties. At the moment this is a major threat as there are not as many spots in intensive care as it might be needed if the spreading rate of the virus proceeds at the current speed.
Again, no panic and no hysteria, I hope I am to be proven wrong but my opinion is that this is not going to be just a simple flu
This site is pretty informative although the data reported are coming from the single states. For instance Russia has only 4 declared cases...
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/