Anti-coronavirus efforts spur chaos
EU decides to shut off bloc’s external borders
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.
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 International Monetary Fund critic Venezuela asked the institution for a $5 billion loan.
But it was everyday people who suffered most.
In Brussels, 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 plan for an entry ban to the bloc — with Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Britain — with “very, very limited exceptions.” Germany will implement the decision immediately.
On Monday, the EU issued guidelines to ease the flow of critical goods like food and medicine, while helping individual nations restrict nonessential 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. “We just want to go home.”
The line of cars and trucks in Lithuania was about 37 miles long after Poland closed its border. Similar traffic jams were visible on the borders with Germany and the Czech Republic.
French President Emmanuel Macron tightened internal guidelines, allowing people to leave home only to buy food, go to work or do essential tasks. He said that people had not complied with earlier guidelines and “we are at war.”
In Italy, reported 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.
The nation also saw virus-related deaths jump by almost 200 to 491 and learned that 17 residents of a nursing home in Madrid died over a five-day period.
The global number of cases worldwide has topped 190,000.
Only China, Italy and Iran had more infections than Spain.
Some bright spots emerged. Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the virus was first detected late last year and which has been under lockdown for weeks, reported just one new case Tuesday.