Paris: The European Union (EU) sealed off its borders Wednesday to try to put the brakes on the ferocious spread of the coronavirus pandemic, as the number of deaths on the continent soared past the toll in Asia.
Millions of people are on strict lockdown in Europe, now the epicentre of COVID-19 with more than 3,400 deaths now recorded, according to an AFP tally.
The United States and Britain led a multi-billion-dollar global fightback against the economic havoc unleashed by COVID-19 but financial markets were unimpressed, with Asian and European stocks plunging further.
The coronavirus outbreak, which first emerged in China late last year, has quickly marched across the globe, infecting nearly 200,000 people and killing over 8,000.
Europe has now recorded 3,421 deaths – including 2,503 in Italy – leapfrogging Asia with 3,384.
Meanwhile desperate travellers choked European border crossings 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.
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. Bulgarian citizens 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 kilometers and cars for 14 kilometers 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.
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 gave the information Tuesday.
Coronavirus is now present in every US state after West Virginia reported an infection. In far-flung Hawaii, the governor encouraged travelers to postpone their island vacations for at least the next 30 days, while the governor of Nevada — home to Las Vegas — ordered a month-long closure of the state’s casinos.
Increasingly worried about the economic fallout of the global shutdown, the US, Britain and the Netherlands announced rescue packages totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, while longtime International Monetary Fund (IMF) critic Venezuela asked the institution for a $5 billion loan.
In Italy, the hardest hit nation after China, infections jumped to 27,980 Tuesday. With 2,503 deaths, Italy accounts for a third of the global death toll.
Spain, the fourth-most infected country, saw its cases soar by more than 2,000 in one day to 11,178 while virus-related deaths jumped to 598.
“We have 13,716 cases in Spain, which is 2,538 more than yesterday (Tuesday), which implies an increase of 18 percent,” said Fernando Simon, the health ministry’s emergencies coordinator.
Over the same 24-hour period, the number of deaths rose to 598, an increase of 107, a government statement showed, giving a higher figure than that initially announced by Simon.
Agencies
