Nationwide disruptions on a massive scale.
U.S.death toll passes 100, West Virginia becomes last state to report case
Berlin — Mass disruptions shuddered across the globe Tuesday as governments struggled to slow the spread of the coronavirus while also trying to keep their economies afloat. The chaos stretched from Lithuania, where border traffic jams were nearly 40 miles deep, to Detroit, where bus service came to a sudden stop when drivers didn’t show up for work.
European Union leaders, meanwhile, agreed to shut down the bloc’s external borders for 30 days. In the United States, West Virginia became the last state to report a case of the disease, confirming that it has spread nationwide.
Increasingly worried about the economic fallout of the global shutdown, the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands announced rescue packages totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, while longtime International Monetary Fund critic Venezuela asked the institution for a $5 billion loan.
But it was everyday people who suffered most.
Miguel Aguirre, his wife and two children were the only people on a normally bustling street near San Francisco’s City Hall, a day after officials in six San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a “shelter-in-place” order requiring most residents to stay inside and venture out only for food, medicine or exercise for three weeks — the most sweeping lockdown in the U.S. against the outbreak. On Tuesday morning, only two coffee shops on the street were open. Both were empty.
Aguirre said he and his wife, janitors at a Boys and Girls Club, heard about the order on TV, but decided to show up to work anyway because they need the money. His supervisor texted him that he should leave.
“If we don’t work, we don’t eat,” said Aguirre, who brought his two daughters along because schools were shuttered. He had already lost his second job, at a hotel, when tourism conferences began canceling a month ago.
“There been days when I want to cry, but I have to keep going,” Aguirre said.
In Brussels, meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said there had been “a unanimous and united approach,” to the decision to prohibit most foreigners from entering the EU for 30 days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders agreed in a conference call to the Commission’s proposal for an entry ban to the bloc — along with Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Britain — with “very, very limited exceptions.” Germany will implement the decision immediately.
But the countries also agreed on the need to ensure continued cross-border travel for commuters, she said.
There will be “grave, very grave consequences” for European economies from the outbreak, Merkel said, one reason to safeguard the flow of goods.
On Monday, the EU issued guidelines to facilitate the flow of critical goods like food and medicine, while helping individual nations restrict non-essential travel.
But on Tuesday 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.
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, tightened internal guidelines, allowing people to leave home only to buy food, go to work or do essential tasks. He said people had not complied with earlier guidelines and “we are at war.”
In Italy, infections jumped to 27,980. With 2,503 deaths, Italy now accounts for a third of the global death toll.
Spain, now the fourth-most infected country, saw the number of people with the virus rise by more than 2,000 in one day to 11,178 and virus-related deaths jump by almost 200 to 491.
Only China, Italy and Iran had more infections.
With the number of cases worldwide topping 190,000, a surge of patients in Madrid’s hospitals has fueled worries in Europe and elsewhere of what lies ahead.
The virus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, for most people, but severe illness is more likely in the elderly and people with existing health problems. COVID-19 has killed over 7,300 people so far, while more than 80,000 have recovered.
In the U.S., the death toll surpassed 100, and officials urged older Americans and those with chronic health conditions to stay home. They also recommended all group gatherings be capped at 10 people.
Britain’s dramatic escalation of restrictions was sparked by new scientific evidence suggesting that 250,000 people in the U.K. and more than 1 million in the U.S. might die if the country did not suppress its spread.
The analysis, published by Imperial College London, drew on the latest data from China and Italy. It found that a strategy of “mitigation” — slowing but not stopping the spread of the virus while protecting vulnerable groups like the elderly — would still lead to a huge number of cases that would overwhelm the health care system.