EUROPEAN borders were choked with desperate travellers in cars and lorries trying to get home before frontiers closed, or deliver supplies to help nations cope with the rapidly-spreading coronavirus pandemic.
It came as Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, said the total number of confirmed cases worldwide has passed 200,000. Its Centre for Systems Science and Engineering’s online tally showed 207,518 cases, with 8248 deaths, and 82,104 patients listed as recovered.
Hungary overnight opened its borders in phases, in a bid to alleviate some of the pressure from eastern Europeans trying to return home.
Bulgarian citizens were first allowed to cross the immigrant-phobic country in carefully controlled convoys, then Romanians had a turn. However, by early yesterday on the Austrian side of the border, trucks were queued for 17 miles and cars for nine as rules allowing only Hungarians or transport trucks through the border were reinstated.
European Union leaders have been trying to make sure food, medical supplies and other essential goods keep flowing, but so far borders have been clogged. They are also trying to figure out ways to allow seasonal agricultural workers, needed to keep food production going, to travel back and forth across essentially closed borders.
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The UN’s International Labour Organisation estimated that fallout from the outbreak could cause nearly 25 million job losses and drain up to $3.4 trillion (£2.89tr) of income by the end of the year. It said “an internationally co-ordinated policy response” could help mitigate losses through worker protections, fiscal stimulus and support for jobs and wages.
Unesco said about half of the world’s student population is now out of school because of the virus.
Donald Trump said the US and Canada had agreed to close their border to non-essential traffic, but said trade would not be affected.
The UK, US and the Netherlands announced rescue packages totalling hundreds of billions of pounds.
In Brussels, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said there had been “a unanimous and united approach” to the decision to halt most foreigners from entering the EU for 30 days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European leaders agreed in a conference call to an entry ban to the bloc – along with the UK, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland – with “very, very limited exceptions”.
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