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Opinion
David Fickling

The Coronavirus Is Starting to Go Global

Outbreaks in Italy, Iran and South Korea may be just the tip of the iceberg.

Infections don’t respect borders.

Infections don’t respect borders.

Photographer: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images

For a time, it looked like our defenses might hold. 

The extraordinary lockdown of China’s Hubei province over the past month had at times appeared to be halting the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus. For much of that period, new cases outside China were running at just a dozen or so a day, most of them with clear connections back to the epicenter in the city of Wuhan.