Europe Keeps Borders Open Despite Coronavirus Spread

(Patria) – Besides Italy, where the coronavirus infection is rapidly spreading in two northern provinces, the first cases have been recorded in Switzerland, Austria, and Croatia.

European officials have decided that closing borders would not be an effective solution after all.

Health ministers of EU member states such as France, Italy, and Germany have made a decision on a coordinated response to travellers returning from risk areas.

It was also decided that public events should not be cancelled but considered on a case-by-case basis with appropriate measures applied.

In Tenerife, Spain, about 1,000 tourists were kept in a hotel where a man of Italian origin showed symptoms of infection.

In Cheshire, England, a school was closed after children returned from skiing in northern Italy.

The first two confirmed cases in Austria have been isolated in a hospital in Innsbruck, while one case of infection in Switzerland is in Ticino, near the border with Italy.

The death toll in Iran has risen to 15, with a total of 95 confirmed cases of infection.

The situation is most severe in Italy, which, with 322 cases and 11 deaths, represents the largest cluster outside Asia.

Preventing a Pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging all countries to work on preventing a possible pandemic.

WHO mission chief in China, Bruce Aylward, who recently returned from Wuhan, has downplayed reports that asymptomatic carriers can spread the virus without knowing they are infected. 'There isn't a large spread of the virus beyond what we are seeing clinically,' he stressed.

He also urged developing countries to be prepared as if the virus were already in their country. 'It will appear,' he said, adding that the hardest task for any government is to convince citizens to accept quarantine and isolation, Euronews reports.

Italy has closed at least ten towns in Lombardy and Veneto, and the first case of a tourist couple, who are already in isolation, has been reported in Sicily.

Around the quarantined towns, there are checkpoints with police trying to regulate long queues in supermarkets where people are buying large quantities of food due to the announced isolation.

Italian authorities are urging citizens to adhere to measures that include a two-week quarantine.