MADRID (AP) — The global battle to contain the coronavirus has reached a new level of urgency, as governments lock down their borders and a new wave of closures and restrictions keep more than 500 million students at home. The growing sense of crisis has rocked global financial markets, particularly on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 12.9 percent Monday. The shifting fronts in the battle have been made clear by figures showing that cases outside China, where the virus originated, surpassed those inside its borders for the first time. Spain officially became the fourth-most infected country in the world, surpassing South Korea. Only China, Italy and Iran have more confirmed cases of COVID-19.
