Germany partially closed its borders with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. Although goods and cross-border commuters can still enter and leave the country, other travellers are being turned away. The measures are an abrupt reversal by Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, who had only days ago vowed to avoid such action. Later that day Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, proposed a 30-day halt to non-essential travel from across the external borders of the EU (and of members of the Schengen free-travel zone).