A NEW round of restrictions and border closures was announced in Europe and beyond yesterday as public life and travel increasingly ground to a halt amid efforts to keep people apart and slow the spread of coronavirus.

Spain awoke to the first day of a nationwide quarantine, while Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said his government was limiting people’s movement nationwide.

This came shortly after the country’s Tyrol province followed Italy and Spain, barring people from leaving their homes except for essential errands and work.

Europe is currently the main frontline in the fight against Covid-19. Austria has confirmed 800 infections, with Kurz saying – other than for essential errands – people should go out “only alone or with the people with whom (they) live in their apartment”.

READ MORE: Scotland does NOT plan to ask over-70s to self-isolate

READ MORE: Routine coronavirus tests to stop in Scotland, says Calderwood

Neighbouring Slovenia said it would shut down all public transport starting today and planned to shut all but food shops and pharmacies.

Estonia and Latvia confirmed they would close their borders to foreign nationals, except residents, from tomorrow. Turkey has put aside quarantine beds for more than 10,000 people returning from pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Italy, the worst-hit European country with more than 21,000 infections and 1400 deaths, wound its nearly week-old lockdown still tighter. The transport ministry banned passengers from taking ferries to the island of Sardinia, and also banned overnight train trips.

Spain joined Italy on lockdown after the government declared a two-week state of emergency. In Barcelona, a police patrol car cruised Barcelona’s streets slowly with loudspeaker blasting a recorded message that people should respect the restrictions on movement.

The state of emergency “is necessary to unify our efforts so we can all go in the same direction”, Barcelona mayor Ada Colau said yesterday. “If we show solidarity and think about one another, we can get through this,” she said. “Other countries have, and it is in our hands to give our best answer to this huge challenge.”

For now, the number of cases is still rising steeply, with Spain’s health ministry confirming the country had recorded 288 deaths, up from 136 on Saturday. The number of infections had also risen to 7753 from 5700.

Spain’s government said on Saturday that prime minister Pedro Sanchez’s wife had tested positive for the coronavirus.

Begona Gomez and the prime minister were in good health, the government said.

Nearby Morocco has suspended all international flights.

There were tough steps being taken in Southeast Asia too, with soldiers and police sealing the densely populated Philippine capital Manila from most domestic travellers. In Indonesia President Joko Widodo asked all people to work, study and worship from home.

In China, where the virus was first detected in December, those arriving on overseas flights were routed to a converted exhibition centre for initial checks before being shuttled off to their homes or other quarantine locations.

But it was clear that the centre of gravity in the crisis has shifted towards Europe and North America. The virus has infected more than 156,000 people worldwide and killed more than 5800. China, Italy, Iran, South Korea and Spain are the countries with the most cases.

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover in a matter of weeks.

The US has seen 60 deaths and more than 2100 cases. President Donald Trump tested negative for the new coronavirus, the American leader’s personal physician said on Saturday.

Travellers scrambling to return to the US after the Trump administration imposed a wide-ranging ban on people entering from Europe faced waits lasting hours for required medical screenings. Videos and photos posted on social media showed packed, winding lines of returning travellers.

Meanwhile, some attempts at keeping up public life persist. France, which has reported 4500 cases and 91 deaths, went ahead yesterday with nationwide elections to choose mayors and other local leaders despite a crackdown on public gatherings. The government ordered unprecedented sanitary measures at polling stations.

Organisers were under orders to allow a one-metre gap between people in lines, and to provide soap or hydro-alcoholic gel and disinfectant wipes for voting machines. Voters were told to bring their own pens to sign the voting register.

The state of Bavaria in neighbouring Germany, which had reported nearly 3800 cases and eight deaths nationwide as of Saturday, also went ahead with municipal elections.

The increasing restrictions weighed on Sunday worship in Spain, where orders stipulated that a one-metre gap be kept between parishioners. The Vatican said it would close all Holy Week ceremonies to the public with the start of Palm Sunday on April 5.

In the Middle East, Muslim authorities announced that Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, would be closed indefinitely due to concerns about the outbreak, with prayers continuing to be held on the sprawling esplanade outside.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trial on serious corruption charges, which was supposed to begin this week, was postponed for two months because of restrictions on public gatherings.

Dalia Samhouri, a regional official with the World Health Organisation, said both Iran and Egypt, two of the most populous countries in the Middle East, were likely to be under-reporting cases because infected people could still show no visible symptoms.

Iran said it had nearly 14,000 virus cases and 724 deaths, while Egypt has reported 110 cases, including two fatalities. “We can easily say that the current figures are an underestimation of the actual figures,” she said.