Coronavirus: Germany partially closes its borders with France, Switzerland and Austria

Monday from 8 a.m., Germany will partially close its borders with France, Switzerland and Austria in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus epidemic but also to prevent its supermarkets at attractive prices from being robbed. Frontier workers are not affected, nor is the transport of goods.

The border region states, namely Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate, have taken this decision agreement with Angela Merkel, according to the Spiegel. The German Minister of the Interior is expected to give further details in the evening.

This restriction does not apply at this stage to the other countries bordering on Germany, considered to be less problematic concerning the spread of the virus, such as Poland, the Czech Republic or Denmark. However, these countries have already closed their borders with their neighbors or introduced strong restrictions.

Checks since Thursday

Since Thursday, German police have been carrying out border checks with the Moselle and the two Alsatian departments, Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin, where many cases of coronavirus have appeared, especially in Mulhouse. It controlled the temperature of people going to Germany, according to France Bleu, causing significant slowdowns.

France announced after the German decision that it would "limit border crossings to the bare minimum, by letting cross-border people and the transport of goods through. "But it is not a closure," a source at the Interior Ministry told AFP.