7 EU states seal borders to non-nationals over coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to cause havoc across the world, with deaths in Europe from the virus leaping overnight.

The COVID-19 outbreak has spread to different regions in Europe, which prompted various courses of action from governments.

Member states are taking similar - but different - courses of action to fight the spread of coronavirus, despite the efforts of the European Commission to coordinate a common EU response.

Seven EU states have fully sealed their borders to non-nationals over the coronavirus pandemic, and despite experts saying it will do no good, EUObserver writes.

The Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia have announced they would close borders to all foreigners.

The moves followed partial closures and extra border checks imposed by Austria, Hungary, and several other countries.

Germany also joined the partial-closure group on Monday (March 16), by all-but sealing its frontiers with Austria, Denmark, France, and Luxembourg, while Slovenia closed its border with Italy.

On a global level, the US added Ireland and the UK to its previous travel ban on 26 EU countries.

Djibouti, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya, Libya, Morocco, Serbia, Tanzania, and Tunisia also either closed their borders entirely or banned flights from the EU.

Turkey closed borders to people from nine EU states and Russia closed land borders with Poland and Norway.

The different measures came after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Europe to be the new "epicenter" of the pandemic.

Numbers of infections and deaths in China, where the outbreak began, were going down.

But France (29 deaths), Italy (368), Spain (97), and the UK (14) recorded their highest fatalities in a single day on March 15.