The global COVID 19 virus, which has been simmering intensely since it first emerged in in early January, this week boiled over.

The infection rate in other parts of the world has overtaken the growth inside China, where it started. Stock markets around the world have plunged. And Australian authorities are now talking worst-case scenarios.

How worried should we be? And if there’s an outbreak in Australia how prepared are we?

On this week's Please Explain episode, Tory Maguire is joined by Sydney Morning Herald Health Editor Kate Aubusson to answer all of our Coronavirus questions.

And later on in the episode, Europe Correspondent Bevan Shields who is in Italy, comes to us from the near deserted Venice to tell us about life inside the “red zone”.

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