EPIDEMIC CLAIMS 11 MORE LIVES IN CHINA AS WUHAN HAS SINGLE CASE
Desperate travellers choked European border crossings on Wednesday after nations implemented strict controls in an attempt to slow the spread of the Covid-19 virus, creating traffic jams miles long and slowing the passage of trucks carrying critical supplies.
The number of people infected worldwide crested the 200,000 mark and deaths topped 8,000, with the number of people now recovered at more than 82,000, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University.
In an attempt to alleviate some of the pressure from eastern Europeans stuck in Austria trying to return home, Hungary overnight opened its borders in phases. Bulgarians were first allowed to cross in carefully controlled convoys, then Romanians had a turn.
But by early Wednesday on the Austrian side of the border, trucks were backed up for 28 kilometres and cars for 14 kilometres as rules allowing only Hungarians or transport trucks through the country’s borders kicked back in.
European Union leaders have been working on how to make sure that food, medical supplies and other essential goods keep flowing but so far borders have been clogged. Looking ahead, they’re also trying to figure out ways to allow seasonal agricultural workers, needed to keep the production of food going, to travel back and forth across essentially closed borders. Nations around the world were facing the same issues, with the US and Canada working on a mutual ban on nonessential travel between the two countries.
In Southeast Asia, the causeway between Malaysia and the financial hub of Singapore was eerily quiet after Malaysia shut its borders, while the Philippines backed down on an order giving foreigners 72 hours to leave from a large part of its main island.
President Donald Trump’s administration was considering a plan to immediately return to Mexico all people who cross America’s southern border illegally, according to two officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan hasn’t been finalised. In far-flung Hawaii, the governor encouraged travellers to postpone their island vacations for at least the next 30 days, while the governor of Nevada — home to Las Vegas — ordered a monthlong closure of the state’s casinos. Worried about the economic fallout of the global shutdown, the US, Britain and the Netherlands announced rescue packages totalling hundreds of billions of dollars.
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 so far, European Union efforts to smooth the transition have failed.
I think that all of us who are not experts initially underestimated the Covid-19. But now it is clear that this is a virus that will keep us busy for a long time yet.
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President, European Commission
Beijing, March 18: The epicentre of the novel Covid-19 outbreak Wuhan city in China reported a single confirmed case for the second consecutive day on Tuesday even as 11 people died of the deadly disease in the country, taking the toll to 3,237, health officials said on Wednesday. Wuhan had reported a single confirmed case on Monday as China began phased withdrawal of thousands of medical personnel deployed in the hardhit Hubei province.
For the second day on Tuesday, the city reported only one new confirmed case. China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said 11 new deaths and 13 new confirmed cases of novel Covid-19 infection were reported in the country on Tuesday.