Coronavirus: German Chancellor Angela Merkel says up to 70 per cent of Germans may get infected
- European leaders say fight against coronavirus is just starting
- French President Emmanuel Macron says outbreak ‘at the very beginning’
In Hungary, the government announced a state of national crisis and issued a travel ban on all visitors from Italy, China, South Korea and Iran.
In Britain, junior health minister Nadine Dorries has been diagnosed with the coronavirus, after showing symptoms on Thursday – the same day she attended a Downing Street event hosted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Merkel pulled no punches as she chaired her first press conference on the epidemic in Berlin.
Speaking alongside Merkel, Lothar Wieler, head of Germany’s federal research institute on infectious diseases, said that “60 to 70 per cent of humanity” could get infected.
“It might take months, it might take years to spread through our country,” he said.
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The chancellor said the key to fighting the virus was “gaining time”, so that the peak of the outbreak could be delayed while scientists could work on developing treatments or vaccines.
She called on Germans to understand measures such as barring spectators at football matches as such moves could “contribute to ensuring that people who are old, people who are sick” did not get infected.
“We have to have a heart for these people,” she said.
Germany has introduced a screening system for exports of medical equipment, given the surge in local demand.
“It doesn’t mean we are not exporting anything at the moment,” Merkel said. “We just want to scrutinise exports to ensure they go to the right people who really need them.”
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Macron said France was “only at the beginning of this epidemic” that has killed 30 people in the country and infected 1,606, the second highest number of infections in Europe after Italy.
While transport links with Italy have been severely disrupted, European leaders were eager to offer assurance that borders would remain open.
Slovenia’s Health Minister Ales Sabeder said on Wednesday that the country, which has 47 confirmed cases, would keep its border with Italy open, but would perform health checks there to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Across the Madrid region, parents were preparing for a two-week school shutdown starting on Wednesday, which will affect more than 1.5 million pupils, with tens of thousands more hit by school shutdowns in Rioja and in the Basque Country.
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Spain’s Health Minister Salvador Illa said the country was “working on avoiding the Italian scenario” and vowed to take additional measures “if we have to”.
The country has reported 36 deaths from Covid-19, which is the highest fatality rate in Europe after Italy.
The European Commission (EC) said it would ensure airlines kept their routes even though they might be forced to suspend them due to the epidemic.
EC President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday it was “taking stock of the available protective equipment and respiratory devices as well as their production and distribution capacity”.
“Those are crucial for the entire health sector,” she said.
The EC would also assemble a team of epidemiologists and virologists from different member states “to give us guidelines on the European level”, she said.
The Bank of England on Wednesday announced an emergency cut in interest rates to 0.25 per cent from 0.75 per cent, as it forecast economic activity to “weaken materially” over the coming months.
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