In September 1918, a ship from Bombay docked at the port of Mombasa. In it were demobilized Indian troops suffering from the Spanish influenza. Mombasa was then teeming with demobilized Kenyans who had served as Carrier Corps. They got infected and as they made their way home, particularly along the railway line, the disease spread.

The pandemic was further aided by a biting famine that forced people from their homes in search of food. Rural areas became graveyards as people, estimated at over 155, 000, died within just that six months. By the third wave in 1919, more than 5.5 percent of the Kenyan population had been wiped out. Across Africa, the disease wiped out 2 percent of the population in less than a year. It killed five times more people than the war itself.

Japan told schools to close through the spring break, which for most students typically means early April. Australia’s leader warned that a pandemic was inevitable, and an Iranian lawmaker said he has tested positive for the virus. New infections and deaths from covid-19, as the disease caused by the coronavirus is known, emerged from the Middle East to Europe and South Korea. The United States, meanwhile, announced its first case with no known link to foreign travel, and the State Department issued a Level 3 travel advisory for South Korea, portending extended economic disruption in Asia.

While China’s official numbers continued to show a drop in new cases and deaths in the country, in other parts of the world the problem appeared to be getting worse. South Korea announced 505 new cases Thursday, bringing its total to 1,766, including a U.S. soldier stationed on the peninsula.

Elsewhere, officials canceled or postponed events including religious pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia, as doubts grow over Tokyo’s plans to host the 2020 Olympics.