POLITICS

Germany partially closes borders with five neighbours, leading to some delays

The Associated Press Published Monday, March 16, 2020 7:38AM EDT

At the Polish border in Frankfurt Oder, Germany

Trucks queue on the A12 highway between Berlin and the Polish border in Frankfurt Oder, Germany, on March 16, 2020. (Michael Sohn / AP)

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German police launched new controls at the usually check-free borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and Denmark on Monday. Police turned back some pedestrians at Kehl, across the Rhine river from the French city of Strasbourg.

People who commute across the border to work are still allowed to cross, as can trucks carrying goods, and Germans are being allowed back in. But Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Sunday that people "without a valid reason to travel" wouldn't be allowed across.

That, for example, ends trips to shops across the border for now.

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Denmark shut own border over the weekend -- as did two eastern neighbours of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Lithuania's government said a convoy of some 500 vehicles -- mostly Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians and Ukrainians -- will be allowed to enter Poland from Germany and transit toward Lithuania on Monday.

Germany has confirmed over 4,800 infections with the new coronavirus, including 12 deaths.