It barely made a footnote in the news bulletins.

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As Nigel Farage and his supporters prepared for their 11pm party in Parliament Square to celebrate Britain’s departure from the EU, reports of two Chinese nationals testing positive for coronavirus in York slipped through almost unnoticed. On the day Brexit finally happened, after three-and-a-half years of wrangling, two overseas visitors being taken ill in a provincial hotel room was always going to take second place.

How little did we know.

A few days earlier, it had been reported that the Chinese government had cancelled its New Year celebrations, and placed the little-known city of Wuhan under something called 'lockdown'. Pictures emerged of deserted streets, and worried-looking locals peering longingly out of their windows for signs of life. But that was China, wasn't it? That sort of thing didn't happen in the free world.

On January 29,, 2020, just at Brexit supporters were preparing to party, Britain became the 23rd country in the world to record the infection, after two Chinese men were taken ill while staying in York. The news came........

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