Traffic jams strangle borders as
● European countries bring in strict controls in bid to keep goods coming in but slow down the spread of the virus
Traffic jams swelled along borders and travellers appealed to their governments for help getting home as countries in Europe and beyond imposed strict controls along their frontiers and grappled with the challenge of allowing the flow of goods, but restricting people to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Tens of millions around the world were already hunkered down in government-ordered isolation after many countries ordered stores, schools and businesses shut down to combat the pandemic. The border closures stopped not only people, but also needed goods, prompting the widespread hoarding of essentials.
German agriculture minister Julia Kloeckner castigated people for spreading panic by posting fake reports over social media that supermarkets would be closing, while urging people only to purchase what they needed for their own households.
“There is enough for everybody,” she said. “I’m certain we will weather this societywide situation well, so long as we behave as a society.”
The European Union issued guidelines on Monday aimed at facilitating the flow of critical goods like food and medicine, while helping individual nations restrict non-essential travel in an effort to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
But yesterday it was chaos on many borders, with traffic backed up for dozens of miles.
“We are all desperate, cold and sleepless here for a third day,” said Janina Stukiene, who was stuck in Lithuania on the border with Poland with her husband and son. “We just want to go home.”
The line of cars and trucks in Lithuania was some 37 miles long after Poland closed its border. Similar traffic jams could be seen on the borders with Germany and the Czech Republic.
Lithuania was sending military airplanes and special trains to Germany to help hundreds of its citizens stranded at the crossing points with Poland.
To try to help citizens from Estonia and Lithuania get home following closure of the Polish border, German police organised a convoy of vehicles
German agriculture minister to a ferry port on one of its Baltic Sea islands.
Frenchpresidentemmanuel Macron, who had a phone call on Monday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU officials, yesterday called for “intensifying European coordination and quickly take effective and concerted action”.
He condemned unilateral border control measures taken by some member states within the EU, according to his office.
Like Germany, France insists the free flow of goods must be guaranteed and cross-border commuting for work should be allowed.
Mr Macron tightened internal guidelines, allowing people to leave home only to buy food, go to work or do essential tasks, saying that people hadn’t complied with earlier guidelines and “we are at war2.
Germany launched a €50 million (£45m) effort to bring home thousands stranded in popular winter vacation spots across the globe, including up to 5,000 in Morocco alone.
“Even if we will do everything humanly possible, we cannot in every case provide a solution within 24 hours,” foreign minister Heiko Maas warned.
More than 100,000 Germans are thought to be in various places around the world looking to get home, including some 30,000 in Egypt, primarily on holiday, and up to 6,000 in Morocco.
Airlines have slashed flights due to a plunge in demand, but also because many countries have been barring foreign arrivals.
Thegermangovernment is working with flagship carrier Lufthansa as well as travel companies on a plan to organise special flights to get citizens and residents home.
Turkey planned to evacuate 3,614 citizens stranded in nine European countries after flights were suspended, foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
Regional authorities in Spain’s Balearic Islands effectively locked down the Mediterranean archipelago by restricting all but a handful of daily flights and incoming boats for returning island residents. Its president Francisca Armengol said the islands “will basically remain closed”.
Spain, now the fourthmost infected country, saw the number of people with the virus rise by more than 2,000 in one day to 11,178 yesterday. Virus-related deaths jump by almost 200 to 491. Only China, Italy and Iran had more infections.
With the number of cases worldwide topping 185,000, a surge of patients in Madrid’s hospitals has fuelled worries in Europe and elsewhere of what lies ahead.
Iran state TV warned that “millions” could die in the Islamic Republic alone if the public keeps traveling and ignores health guidance.
“There is enough for everybody. I’m certain we will weather this society-wide situation well, so long as we behave as a society”
JULIA KLOECKNER