When the novel coronavirus infection first emerged late last year, with the number of infections in Wuhan, China, growing in early January, few imagined the incident would morph into a serious epidemic, spreading rapidly across the globe.

While the reported number of newly infected people appears to be contained in China and its epicentre in Hubei Province, global infection is becoming a real threat. Covid-19 is spreading at an alarming speed, not only in neighbouring Japan, Singapore, South