I totally agree about hating to have to make judgements without enough information or guidance! That's what I found so tough about cancelling things over Christmas.

I note that IT is obviously not quite the same line of thing, but even early last term we were strongly discouraging people from making initial requests in person - if they need in person help then they'll get it, but they should ask by phone/email first, to keep contact to a minimum. I can understand that you and your team may still want to offer in person support, but how much of it is easy to ask people to do remotely instead?

Mind you right now I have a sodding annoying (not-covid) cough, and no-one in their right mind would want me in an office with them!