Businesses to close and spain goes a step further telling residents to remain inside their homes plus chaos a few west airports as americans rush home from europe before flights from britain and ireland are grounded in washington could soon start restricting travel within the u. S. Im carl asman thanks for joining us europes open borders are closing germany joins a growing list of e. U. Countries to at least partially shut out their neighbors authorities here deciding to close boundaries with switzerland and austria thats according to german media reports added restrictions are also being imposed on the french german boundary those measures are expected to begin on monday in germany itself authorities have not yet impose the kind of strict new. Wide measures were seeing in other European Countries but authorities are urging people to take precautions to slow the spread of the coronavirus shops have been busy as people stock up on the central and thats leading to shortages of some items toilet paper for example nonperishable foods and vegetables many german states have decided to shut down schools and to worst attractions. Joining me now is the correspond william noah glue kroft hes reporting for us in berlin william germany now the latest country in europe to shot at least some borders what more do we know at this hour about closure yes this information came across just within the last hour or so from german media reporting that yes borders to france austria switzerland will not be fully closed at least be heavily restricted starting monday morning starting with the monday morning commute it should be noted that has been no official government announcement of this issue yet that is also reported to be coming later this evening what exactly the details of these closures are restrictions are going to be it does seem that nonessential traffic is going to be stopped at the borders at these 3 particular borders but commuters and goods will still be able to pass through the borders apparently according to reports the idea is not only to stop the spread of the virus but also to stop the spread of or the amount of people who are coming across borders to try to squirrel away stocking up on all kinds of products people who live in the border region so that seems to be the goal of what of what these border restrictions are going to be but again an official notes will be coming later this evening according to german media reports william at least 10 other countries in the e. U. Are the Schengen Area of closed borders as well as well what does this mean now for the e. U. Which really prides itself on freedom of movement. Yes germany of course has border neighboring countries beyond just these 3 countries listed there have not been announcements about those countries this Czech Republic the netherlands denmark poland but these countries themselves also. Imposed their own border restrictions already as have many other e. U. Countries as you just said. This is really the underpinning of the e. U. Of the idea of Free Movement and open borders of goods and people this is what the e. U. Is all about and this is why germany has been really hesitant the last couple of weeks to go along with this Border Closure idea its a rather controversial idea of course germany has a long history it was a divided country itself between east and west during the cold war were well ran through the country dividing the border and keeping the border closed of course the iron curtain between the soviet east and the capitalist west and of course in 2015 who can forget that im going to markell is famous for keeping the borders open during the migration crisis and now she may be known as the translator who closed the borders at least in part for this virus william briefly if you can youre in berlin some restrictions have now taken effect what does daily life look like where you walk i mean people are still out and about but its definitely rather quiet and the full restrictions come in tomorrow with schools clubs bars and the like public life basically in general shutting down and just to give you an idea of the scale of what were facing here in berlin 150000 schoolchildren are estimated to not have child care one of those schools close and only a merge and see parents who have emergency jobs essential jobs well well have that Emergency Care for them and the rest the kids still have to wait and see will happen with them william no a bluegrass reporting for us in berlin thank you very much. We move now to the covert 1000 hotspots in europe like spain which has gone into Lockdown Police around around the country sending people home who refuse to obey orders to self isolate unprecedented lockdowns are starting to come into effect in many European Countries the streets empty in many cities across the continent spain and france among the worst hit by the outbreak there following italys lead and have announced drastic new measures in a bid to combat the viruses spread in spain more than 190 people have died making it the worst affected country behind italy 47000000 spaniards banned from leaving their homes for the next 2 weeks except by essential supplies for the Prime Minister declared a state of emergency there in france most restaurants and cafes now are closed as the capital paris runs to a halt. We have Team Coverage of the situation across europe right now lets bring in correspondent lisa lewis shes in paris and marcus finish who is standing by in madrid marcus i want to start with you 47000000 people in spain essentially told to stay inside how do things look there or does it look like thats happening. Well im here in madrid and madrid is going to look like a small village in a remote area midnight there are very very few people in the streets the traffic is mostly public transport whos still allowed to circulate. Those cyclists behind me they are food deliveries they are also allowed to follow their work but thats all the rest has to stay at home and police is getting quite straight to ask people to leave the streets i was told so as well as some minutes ago so yes. The military is also coming into force they will soldiers will help police to clean the streets from people but also disinfecting some hotspots lisa lets turn to you now Strict Lockdown measures in france as well how are people responding in paris absolutely ive been talking to people here in the streets and some people have been telling me and my friends well ive been telling me you know we understand the measures we really need to be careful to make sure that sees doesnt spread as fast as somewhere else like in italy however when you look around here in the streets of paris there are lots of people Walking Around theres been pictures all across social media of people you know packed families markets here in paris but also across the country there are gardens where people are just having a nice time in the sunshine and no one really seems all these people at least dont seem very concerned about the virus so there is the latest. Message coming out of there i mean are there why are they still out there to have as authorities just not been able to communicate the seriousness of this. Well the Prime Minister yesterday said that he was putting in place the lockdown of certain commerces certain shops because he felt that people werent taking this seriously and i think what he did yesterday hasnt really changed that so people are not not a lot of people are not taking taking it seriously. Lets go back to you marcus we heard about the steps there that authorities are taking to enforce the lockdown how worried are people there about what that lockdown will do Something Like the economy i mean spain relies so heavily on tourism and small and medium sized businesses. This looked on will be catastrophic for tourism without any doubt all the services are affected and tourism especially so beaches are empty hotels as well. So the Common People the spaniards what they allowed to they can go to work from tomorrow on and nothing more they can buy some food what they need. Thats all so people are very very limited but it is necessary because the latest figures show we have 2000 more cases of infected people in spain within 24 hours 133 people died more between yesterday and today so the measures are needed people at least here in madrid quite concerned and they stay at home mostly these so they are in france the Prime Minister has called covert 19 the Biggest Health crisis in a century and yet the decision was made to go ahead today with voting in local elections why is that. Well thats the big question it looks like its a its a political decision he said that democracy still need to go on but many people were wondering why he didnt cancel them given that he now shut down all restaurants and bars that cetera and if you look at the figures about 39 percent this afternoon thats the latest participation figure at 5 oclock this afternoon and thats a about 16 percent less 16 points less than 6 years ago so many people felt have been feeling apparently that they shouldnt be taking taking part in these elections because it didnt make sense and it would mean that there wouldnt be safe and you were you were there you said potentially just quickly it didnt seem like there were the proper protections in place right absolutely the polling station that i went to earlier it was quite full of people the election worker there taught me that they hadnt didnt have the time and at that there was enough space actually to respect the minimum distance of one meter between people and many people there didnt really seem to care about the disinfectant the gel that people could use at the you know at the entrance of the polling station so it does seem that the government measures to make sure that people stay safe i really not put in place everywhere lisa was reporting in paris markers in madrid thank you both. Meanwhile the u. S. Has tied its ban on visitors from europe President Donald Trump says it will now include travelers from britain and ireland who were exempted from the initial ban a week ago trump said he was also considering travel restrictions within the country to areas hit hardest by the virus the spread. Chaos at Chicago Ohare Airport d. One of the europe travel ban thousands in closely confined poorly ventilated spaces waiting hours to go through coronavirus screenings at u. S. Border controls it was a similar scene at Dallas Fort Worth and other airports. New measures in place at the white house to the countrys Top Health Official warned that hard work was ahead and called for americans to pull together this will get worse before it gets matter but we are making progress to flatten the curve and we are making progress no more bickering a number of partisanship no more criticism or finger pointing to the president then on the u. S. Ban on e. U. Travelers would be extended to include the u. K. s reuters is reporting that youre going to send your control to be u. K. And ireland on monday is that group youre going to very seriously get because theyve had a little bit of activity unfortunately so were going to be looking to that that we have actually already have looked at it and that is going to be. Announced. In the us passengers from london got the news as they flew river the atlantic it would mean additional checks im long waits on arrival on every country. And yes got to get it away and if they keep. Something. Or its like the Border Patrol is going to want to work. Out its you know out. Of the way down. On miami beach. Wrists were caught by surprise too. Now of course the news has just come out that potentially is banning all travel back to the. Where were seriously worried. The 1000 to flock to miamis winter sun may be here are while longer after a number of airlines scramble to cut flights to europe. Theyre watching d. W. News live from berlin up next for a polder we take you to the deck of the ocean viking where a groups trying to save the lives of migrants crossing the mediterranean more news coming at the top of the hour dont forget in the meantime all the latest headlines available 24 sevenths on our web site thats d w dot com or you can follow us on twitter at the news im carl aspen thanks for watching. Where i come from we have to fight for a free press and was born and raised in a new town with the painter she put just one to the shadow and if you just papers when official information as a journalist i have worked on the streets of many cantors on then