Although nCoV has surpassed Asia, spread rapidly in the Middle East or Italy, countries still have mutual distrust and lack of cooperation to fight the epidemic.

For the past several weeks, the world's focus has mostly been on China, where the outbreak of Covid-19 occurred and accounted for the majority of cases. Mainland China currently records 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths, compared with more than 80,000 globally and nearly 2,700 globally.

About 780 million Chinese people, or more than half of the country's population, are restricted from traveling in many ways to prevent nCoV from spreading. However, as the epidemic began to evolve complicatedly, especially in Korea, Italy and Iran, the political systems, as well as extremely different health systems, faced similar challenges.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned the world that it is not ready for a global pandemic, adding that the synchronized response is extremely important in reducing damage and controlling the epidemic. The disease is inherently not many opportunities to prevent it.

According to NY Times commentator Mark Landler, the fact that Italy, Iran and South Korea became the new centers of the Covid-19 epidemic indicates the absence of a global coordinating strategy to deal with nCoV.

In Iran, the government decided to close schools and cultural centers across 14 provinces to combat the Covid-19 epidemic. Iranian officials announced 61 people were infected and 12 died. However, this information was suspected when Senator Ahmad Amiriabadi Farahani said 50 people had died in Qom city since February 13 because of the nCoV.

This statement made many people immediately associate the Iranian case of hiding a wrong shot of a Ukrainian plane last month, killing 176 people. The Iranian government must then dismiss the information made by Farahani, confirming that it will be transparent about the number of nCoV cases and deaths.

This lack of trust made Iran's neighbors very alert. Pakistan and Turkey temporarily closed the border with Iran on February 23. Afghanistan, where nCoV was the first to appear on Feb. 24, banned citizens from traveling to Iran, except for "humanitarian" essential trips.

However, such measures are not sufficient to prevent nCoV from spreading. Cases have begun to appear in many other countries in the region, including Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Kuwait and Oman.

"Those countries will report incomplete cases of infection, to show they have not had a terrible disaster, or they do not want to be accused of causing trouble for the rest of the world," Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Policy and Research at the University of Minnesota, USA, expressed concern.

The expert added that at some point, nCoV will spread and become a global problem, to the point where it no longer has a place to start. Even so, overseas Chinese are still suspected and even hostile. In South Korea, a popular tourist destination for Chinese people, some shops hang signs that forbid people.

South Korea became the world's second largest "outbreak" of Covid-19 with at least 977 cases and 11 deaths, prompting the government to raise the nCoV alert to its highest level and take more control measures. This situation prompted at least 15 countries and territories to impose a ban or restriction on entry for Korean nationals, or people who have been to Korea.

In Italy, officials blocked more than 50,000 people in 11 northern Lombardy towns in an effort to prevent nCoV from spreading to the city of Milan, avoiding the risk of paralysis. The country has recorded 229 cases, of which 7 died.

European Union (EU) officials say they are in regular contact with the Italian government, while powerful neighbors like Germany and France are committed to maintaining open borders. The EU does not recommend member states to apply border control measures in the Schengen area, where passengers move across the border without checking their passports.

"Any decision should be based on a risk assessment, scientific consultation and compliance," said Stella Kyriakides, EU food and health safety commissioner. "We emphasize that WHO does not currently recommend changes or impose restrictions on movement and trade."

Despite these claims, European countries remain vigilant. Austria on 23 February postponed a train on the Italian border on suspicion that two of the 300 passengers from Venice were infected with nCoV. After the two were confirmed negative, the ship was allowed to enter Austria.

Experts say that in the current phase of the Covid-19 epidemic, closing the border is quite useless. In many cases, nCoV has spread to countries before the border was frozen. Case detection is also increasingly difficult because nCoV is being transmitted from people with mild symptoms, even thought to asymptomatic people.

"People are always looking for ways to move. Even before China imposed a blockade of cities, millions of people had left," said Professor Devi Sridhar, director of the global health management program at Edinburgh University. , Scotland, note.

Sridhar believes that Europe has an advantage over other regions of the world in the fight against nCoV, thanks to its reliable data system and public confidence in health authorities. However, commentator Landler said that even Europe has a worrying signal of lack of coordination.

As the number of nCoV infections in Italy soared over the weekend, EU officials struggled to persuade other member states to quickly share information and coordinate to find ways to cope with the disease. This situation is very similar to what happened in China, which has been heavily criticized for its slow initial response and lack of transparency with Covid-19.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday acknowledged the Covid-19 epidemic as "the largest public health emergency" in the country's history. Beijing has also decided to postpone the expected parliamentary session early next month, an unprecedented move in 25 years.

Health experts rated China to take drastic action shortly after "awakening" to the threat. The WHO delegation in China said strong government measures could have helped hundreds of thousands of people not be infected with nCoV.

However, Dr. Bruce Aylward, WHO's head of delegation, warned other countries also need to respond promptly and resolutely in the context of nCoV is spreading rapidly. "All have to review their systems because they don't work fast enough," he said.

"Before the new turning point, the world needs to answer the question of what to do together to fight against nCoV," said Osterholm expert.