Closing borders

Germany closing borders to EU travelers, minister says

Extraordinary measure is ‘further step to protect the population.’

By ANDREW GRAY

Germany is closing its borders to travelers from other EU countries in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said on Wednesday evening.

"Today we are taking a further step to protect the population. We are expanding the restrictions on people traveling into the country to travelers from the European member countries — regardless of whether they travel to Germany via air, rail, water or road," Scheuer said in a statement released by his ministry.

Goods traffic and people working in healthcare or critical infrastructure are exempt from the measure, Scheuer said.

It was not immediately clear whether the ban would affect travelers from all EU countries or only some of them.

An Interior Ministry spokesman tweeted that border controls now apply to air and sea travel within Europe. He said travel restrictions apply with immediate effect to flights from Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland, as well as to sea travel from Denmark.