Upheaval grows as nations strive to slow spread
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 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.
Increasingly worried about the economic fallout of the global shutdown, the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands also announced rescue packages totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, while Venezuela — long a fierce critic of the International Monetary Fund — asked the institution for a $5 billion loan.
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 had agreed to the Commission’s proposal for an entry ban to the bloc — along with Norway, Switzerland, Iceland and Britain — with “very, very limited exceptions.”
But the countries also agreed on the need to ensure continued crossborder travel for commuters, she said.
There will be “grave, very grave consequences” for European economies from the outbreak, she said, one reason to safeguard the flow of goods.
On Monday, the EU issued guidelines aimed at facilitating 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 some 37 miles long after Poland closed its border, while similar traffic jams could be seen on the borders with Germany and the Czech Republic.
French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, 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 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 fourthmost infected country, saw the number of people with the virus rise by more than 2,000 in one day to 11,178 and virusrelated deaths jump by almost 200 to 491.