Switzerland, Luxembourg and Germany become the latest European countries to close their schools
- Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga said situation is ‘difficult’ in the country
- PM Xavier Bettel said Luxembourgers will need to adapt in wake of coronavirus
- At least 12 of Germany’s 16 states have also closed their schools
- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that schools will remain open
- More than 200,000 commuters from Belgium, France and Germany cross Luxembourg’s borders each day for work
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Switzerland, Luxembourg and Germany have become the latest European countries to close their schools in a desperate bid to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Luxembourg has also said it will limit visits to the elderly, after the country reported 26 cases of COVID-19.
Switzerland has added to its containment measures a $10billion aid package for hard-hit businesses as new test results brought its case number past the 1,000 mark.
And at least 12 of Germany’s 16 states have shuttered their schools in an attempt to control the virus.
States taking action include the European nation’s most populous, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg.
Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel pictured as he arrives for an EU summit in Brussels on February 21, 2020. Bettel said today that the lives of Luxembourgers will ‘have to adapt’ in the wake of the coronavirus
Announcing the closure of schools today, Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga said: ‘The situation is difficult’.
‘Daily life is going to change and we will have to adapt,’ Prime Minister Xavier Bettel said on Thursday, announcing measures of a scale ‘never seen before’ in the Grand Duchy.
Luxembourg’s closures come just one day after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted that British schools were staying open, and that closures would do nothing to prevent the escalating coronavirus crisis.
Landlocked Luxembourg is home to only 600,000 people, but more than 200,000 commuters from Belgium, France and Germany cross its borders each day to come to work.
So far, the country has recorded 26 cases of COVID-19 infection, and one 94-year-old man is in a critical state in hospital.
As in many other countries touched by the virus, Luxembourg wants to encourage people to work from home, but this is complicated in its case by the tax rules for cross-border workers.
At least seven more European countries have announced closures, including France, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Norway and Portugal.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced pressure to act after Ireland announced that its schools, colleges and childcare facilities would be closed for the rest of the month from today.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a news conference inside 10 Downing Street in London, Britain yesterday. Despite widespread school closures across Europe, the prime minister insisted last night that British facilities would remain open
London Bridge Station is pictured during rush hour this morning, with far fewer people walking around than usual, after PM Boris Johnson announced the country would be moving to the ‘delay’ phase of battling the coronavirus
Despite facing more than eight times fewer cases than Britain, Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that the country needed to undertake ‘big changes in the way we live our lives’ to defeat the virus.
The Prime Minister said sending England’s nine million pupils home could do ‘more harm than good’ – but ordered schools to cancel all trips abroad.
An official petition on the UK’s parliamentary website calling for the Government to consider closing schools had gained almost 375,000 signatures last night.