What Brazil is doing to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country

After being pushed through Congress at break-neck speed, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro sanctioned a bill giving the government legal support to carry out emergency measures in its efforts to prevent the novel coronavirus outbreak from reaching the country.

The new rules will be enforced only while the World Health Organization considers the outbreak a “global emergency.” Since its identification by Chinese authorities in mid-December, coronavirus infections have killed over 600 people—while the number of confirmed cases has surpassed 31,000.

It is important to note that most of the human toll of this outbreak has been restricted to mainland China—more precisely the province of Hubei. Latin America has remained free of the coronavirus, with the sole infection...