The Austrian authorities announced Sunday evening the resumption of train traffic on an important link with Italy passing through the Brenner pass. While the multiplication of positive cases for the new coronavirus in Italy is worrying the authorities and the local population, the first border country, Austria, has taken precautionary measures after a suspicion of new coronavirus on travelers. "Rail connections by the Brenner are interrupted due to an administrative decision," said a spokesman for the Austrian railway company ÖBB on Sunday evening. An interruption in traffic which blocked at the Brenner station some 500 passengers. Finally, the two travelers were tested negative.
Their train from Venice to Munich (Germany) was stopped in the evening at the Brenner Pass station. According to the police, quoted by the Austrian agency APA, the two German passengers suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, were taken in for medical examinations shortly after their departure from Venice and were no longer on the train stopped at the border. The examinations performed were ultimately negative.
Italy now has 149 cases and three deaths, making it the most affected country in Europe since the outbreak of viral pneumonia in December in China. The most numerous cases were listed in Lombardy (region of Milan) with 110 contaminations and 21 in Veneto (region of Venice).
SNCF broadcasts messages
The neighboring countries of Italy are closely monitoring the development of the health situation on the peninsula, where eleven cities have been placed in quarantine. On the French side, the SNCF broadcasts messages in major French stations calling travelers to contact an emergency number in the event of illness, but has not yet deployed any specific device on the subject of Italy.
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The airport prefecture for its part indicates that "there are no specific measures, we are staying on the existing system" for Paris airports: at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle, distribution of posters for travelers from 'Italy and presence of medical teams to inform, reassure and even take the temperature of passengers who so wish. However, no specific device is planned at Orly, where there is no direct flight to Italy.
"Air France normally operates all of its flights to and from Italy," an airline spokesman said on Sunday.
Concern in Switzerland is growing
Switzerland has so far "not taken any additional measures" such as border restrictions but "obviously we are watching very carefully what is happening in Italy," said a spokesman for the Federal Office on Sunday. of Public Health (OFSP).
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But concern is growing among the neighboring population, according to the Swiss press agency Keystone-ATS, since around 68,000 border Italians come to work daily in the canton of Ticino.
Personalities from the local political world are already demanding measures to protect the population, the agency also noted, referring to the request from an elected representative of the SVP (populist right) for temperature controls for cross-border residents.
