When Republic of Korea President Moon Jae-in said on Feb 3, "China's difficulty is also ours" to raise his nation's awareness of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in China, China was facing the difficult ordeal of curbing the spread of the virus nationwide, and it deeply appreciated the moral and material support given by the ROK.

Now it is the ROK that seems to be at the critical juncture of how China was then, as the country has the highest number of people infected with the virus outside of China; 1,261 as of Wednesday.

Japan too seems to be facing a similar situation with 170 people infected with the virus, not including 691 from the ship quarantined at Yokohama port.

That the organizing committee for the Olympic Games in Tokyo has for the first time noted that whether the Games will be held as scheduled in the summer depends on how well the epidemic is controlled in the next three months indicates that the country is at a crossroad in its efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

Given the close personnel exchanges among the three neighbors, it is high time for their public health and transportation departments to strengthen epidemic-related information exchanges, and public health policymakers and institutes to step up their cooperation so as to better coordinate their war against a common enemy.

The three countries should strengthen their quarantine work at customs to curb cross-border transmission and minimize the influence of the epidemic on their personnel and commercial exchanges.

The ROK and Japan's advanced medical systems, solid economic foundations and unity of their people in the fight against the virus will prove indispensable to defeating the virus. Although their high-density populations will put their governance systems to a harsh test.

Before vaccines are developed, it is good to see that the two countries have already heeded China's lessons and experience in dealing with the epidemic and they are trying to limit population mobility. The detection, quarantine and hospitalization of those who are suspected of being infected must be done in a wait-for-nothing manner as the two countries are in a race to get ahead of the spread of the virus.

As many industries, particularly those producing protective medical items, have resumed production in China, it can be expected that with China having to some extent contained the virus in Hubei province where it first emerged it will be able to provide medical items to support its two neighbors in their fight against the virus.

Given the three economies' collective importance to the global supply chain, other countries should also prepare for the epidemic's likely aftermath on the world economy, and consider what they can do to support the three countries in their struggle.

Their battle is also the world's.