Dear all,

dear Jiří Preis

The closure of borders even within the EU-27 is an adequate measure in a short lockdown - possibly for one or two month, but not longer...

In particular some peoples movement is necessary and in particular the movements of goods because we cannot produce all on our own - we are living in a globalized world and our chains of commodities are not all coming out of one country only... We require World Trade and open borders...

But we must cope with COVID-19 and be careful - it is and stays a fragile

situation...

Best Wishes, Carsten

NB: Germany has closed its borders to Poland, France, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland and Czech republic for normal travellers but not for nurses and medical personnel...

Borders are open to Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands...

I am from India. As of now the whole country is under lockdown. International travel is not permitted. No inter-state movement is allowed. Even intra-state movement is prohibited. May be due to this fact our two states have already become COVID free, meaning no active case is there.

I think sealing of borders and movement is a good initiative. A key factor which will be frontrunner in fighting this pandemic is herd immunity. You can attain that by either vaccination or by natural means. Problem with vaccination is that you cannot develop it overnight while for the natural herd immunity one has to subject masses to infection, but with that strategy the mortality figures will be unacceptable.

So as of now containment by measure of restricting movement seems to be the best measure. It will help in saving virgin populations, prevent sudden and massive burden on health system and most importantly it will buy time for the vaccine development.

Yes the border from Germany to Belgium is open to my knowledge...

It is situated north of Luxemburg... Not very long, but a border...

Agreed. It is one out of there directions it got carried into Germany:

Belgium, Italy/Austria and Iran...

May be that is one of the measure but cannot say anything until we donot find a Carona person in any corner of the world !

Blocked borders can significantly slow down the spread of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic disease causing Covid-19, but closed borders are unlikely to be 100 percent. ensured that the virus was not transferred from country to country. For example, on certain goods transported across the border, the virus may persist for several hours. It cannot be excluded that through other factors to which the virus does not work, it can be transmitted, e.g. certain animal species which do not get sick but can be carriers. Of course, how this type of issue would be realized in reality depends on the specificity of a particular virus.

Regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

I do agree with Dr.Dariusz's view.

Dear Colleagues and Friends from RG, This is puzzling why in some countries in Europe and outside Europe, on other continents, statistics are the number of people who have been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus causing Covid-19 disease, the number of people who died of Covid-19 disease, and the number of people who recovering from Covid-19 disease varies significantly from country to country. What may result from such a large diversity of these numbers, taking into account the issue of correction of comparative analysis regarding the ratio of population in particular countries and a specific date of the beginning of the epidemic development in individual countries. Even if we take into account the above-mentioned issues (population of the country, date of onset of the epidemic, i.e. detection of the first infected person in a given country) and we make appropriate adjustments to make a fair comparative analysis, these numbers still vary significantly. Is the main reason unequal restrictions on the use of legally sanctioned epidemiological and sanitary safety instruments (home quarantine, wearing face masks outside the home, temporary closed companies, service establishments, cultural and public institutions, closed schools, kindergartens and colleges, remote citizen service only) via the Internet by specific companies and institutions, etc.) or rather the scale of compliance by citizens more or less reliably with these restrictions? Or maybe there are some significant differences in the procedures of testing for the presence of Coronavirus in subjects? Or maybe other determinants shape the above-mentioned diversity?

Regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

That will depend on the situation between places, although we all know that having locked borders can be a successful measure against COVID-19 spread and protection of the nation against the infection. However, all scenarios must be studied well accurately prior to doing some decisions.

Dear Colleagues,

thank you so far for your inputs so far. Very appreciated.

It seems to me, that a longterm lockdown of the borders can kill the economy of most of the countries, as the international business and international education programmes (not mentioning services in tourism and transport) would be extremely limited.

Are there any clear plans and strategy of the goverments in countries about the national borders where you live? Thank you!

I don't think it is a practical solutions. Lockdown is possible for a month or two only. Poor countries even can't observed one month lockdown.

Hello,

I think it's wise the Czech government had closed borders to travel because a lot of cases in countries all over the world were mostly due to importing the virus by travel into the country.

A case study is my country Nigeria for example, the first case we had was from a non-citizen who brought the virus into the country.

But for a one year lockdown, I do not think it is really great, but let's hope the SARS-COV-2 pandemic leaves no traces behind before then so we can return to our normal businesses

Yes, ofcourse!!!

There must be lock-down for more days or months i would say. It is good to be in lock-down and tolerate all the scarcity (which is temporary) than to be in intolerant situation after getting infection. So, unite and be with your nation and be safe. Yes we can help nation only to be in home which is i think easiest thing to do for every individual. Solute to all professionals who are working hard in this situation for saving and caring lives.

Lock-down certainly reducesthe spread, but not acting as long term solution. It will defenitly cause economic losses.

Personally I don't think lock down is the only solution of this epidemic.. borders do need to open after some time with constant scrutiny of persons coming to area... Being an indian, where of people r rural and farmers, we will see more people dying of hunger than Corona if borders are not opened..

Closed borders will only be very effective in the absence of community transmission. If there are already cases within the country, closing the borders is not likely to have a significant effect in slowing the disease spread

I am agree with answer by Mr. Aleš. Thank you.

Yes, surely ..,but should be supports with other recommendations such as personally measurements which help to reduce the ratio frequently transmission COVID-19 .Thanks

I concurred to David Acheme's position. Thank you.

Dear colleaguess, I very appreciate you inputs and thoughts. I and my colleagues are preparing a project dealing with Czech borderland region(s) development socioeconomic impacts in time of COVID-19 epidemic and I am very much interested in thoughts from abroad. The situation now is, that the government unleashed the lockdown, but requires COVID-19 negative tests upon return for everyone. As it is not very easy to simply get it (and it cost for self-paying perosn about 120 Euros), it is a strong obstacle enough. So people are traveling only when it is really necessary.

Other thig is, that there are not many flight currently from Prague and most of the countries require negative test anyway. So it is both logistically as well as organizationally (as well as financially) demanding.

We will se how things look like in future.

I think lock-down within and blocked boarders both needs to be the order of the day We need not shut eyes from it because of socio-economic impact. Its because of the fact the COVID-19 is very strange in its characters. However the question for how long we can maintain both lock-down within and blocked boarders simultaneously, varies from situation to situation of different countries.

Thanks and Stay Safe

I don't think closing boarders is a cost-effective strategy, but unfortunately many countries did the same. You can see from the following website (set-up by the European Observatory of Health Systems and Policies) the restrictions (and other measures) introduced in many EU countries:

https://www.covid19healthsystem.org/mainpage.aspx

Zeynep

good work.

The Ebola epidemic of 2014 is still very fresh in our minds as Nigerians. The lessons learnt then are still very useful in this case. I agree with the earlier views on lockdown as a short term intervention, but I have another view to this. Lockdown has also helped Government in responding appropriately to the pandemic while reducing fatalities. You can put it as - it helped government to 'buy sometime' else, the healthcare system would have been overwhelmed due to lack of isolation centres, ventilators etc. Now that a little provisions are in place, lockdowns can be eased a bit while all other measures are kept intact so that the adverse economic impact can quickly be arrested.

Border closures can be one element in what needs to be a suite of interventions aimed at containing the spread of a contagious disease such as COVID-19. The level of effectiveness of border closures depends on the stage of the outbreak and the greatest effectiveness is in the early stages when there are few local cases . Once the illness is established, it is much more important to contain local community-based spread through physical distancing measures, testing, tracing and quarantine of identified cases.

The main challenges came from internet services, the psychological state, and lonely.

Jiří Preis

Dear Prof. Jiří Preis

Venezuelan borders with Colombia are still officially closed, but at the same time chavistas are calling venezuelan refugees to come back, despite that there are not sanitary conditions, neither health public system´s conditions.

In addition, the hyperinflation is huge again.

To my knowlege > 30000 refugees had already returned---in the last 3 weeks.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/returning-venezuelans-forced-stirring-pot-diseases-200408195801387.html

Yes, corona spread will slow down. But national economic growth rate may fall down.

Blocked borders can significantly slow down the spread of coronavirus .but an economic depression may happen in the countries.

I think that it is a bit premature to speak of a lockdown period longer than three-four months.

From a medical standpoint, the main idea of isolating everyone in their homes, or within national borders is to keep them in a stationary position. It is more difficult to deal with a moving vector of infection than with a stationary one.

If there is a burst of infection particles, let it be contained. A mini bomb with restricted impact field, so to speak, is more manageable than a large one, which would lead to a large influx of patients and overtax the state healthcare system.

Lockdown also stems from the interpretative nature of human reasoning. If the relevant authorities say: "Go out only at your discretion, when the absolute need calls for it", people will not observe quarantine, as each person observes/ prioritizes needs differently.

Then, there is also the case of people who never listen to reason or instruction...

The outbreak in some countries progressed not in spite of them closing their borders, but because they believed official info from an international institution they trusted and closed their borders too late, and/or recalled their citizens who had immigrated to other countries.

Travel from the original country of infection before the closing of its borders, and immigrants coming back after the closure of receiving state's national borders, brought a great degree of infection into some countries.

It may be the inconvenient truth for some, but it is still the reality of it all.

:)

I think that it is takes more time..

It is a necessary measure to reiterate the need for social distancing in densely populated countries like India particularly as the COVID 19 symptoms and treatment seem to be vague till date.

Closing borders though has lot of impacts on the livelihood of immigrant communities all over the world.

Longer lockdown periods must definitely take into consideration question of general economy and put in place basic measures to ensure that activities like farming and distribution of food grains and perishables are not adversely affected not only in this period but also after we resume life after lockdown.

It is a essential measure to reiterate the need for social distancing in densely populated cities like Nairobi in Kenya particularly as the COVID 19 symptoms and treatment seem to be vague till date.

Yes I beleive it will reduce the spread but with some disadvantages

See my article recently published. Blocking borders has never in History shown to control or minimize any epidemics.

It is instead a serious problem in Human Rights - the citizens have the right to return to their own country. Perhaps after the return they could be placed inpatients for some observation, but to prohibit a Czech citizen to return to Czechia is unacceptable.

Once you already have a significant prevalence of the disease within the country, locking the border is like locking the stable after the horse has already fled.

Indubitably, blocking borders will contribute to slow down severity of this virus but simultaneously weakens the particular regions' economical stability. As we already familiar, virus can be transmitted not only by infected person but also through the surfaces (glass, metal cord), so, It can also spread through goods' import-export among countries.

Blocked borders can significantly slow down the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (causing Covid-19 disease) pandemic, but they do not guarantee it will stop completely.

Greetings,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Officially the Canada/USA border is closed, however, a lot of the food and other goods go through with drivers changing at the border. So, there is still a chance the virus can pass the border somehow.

Dear Jiří Preis, may please read our publication in the following, wishfully be beneficial to comprehensively enlighten in this theme:

Preprint The need for consensus on the effective approach to control ...

Amin, Firman Zulkifli, Sari, Mila Kurnia, & Amin, Zulkifli. (2020, April 26). The need for consensus on the effective approach to control COVID-19 outbreak. Zenodo. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3766566

Dear Firman Zulkifli Amin thank you, will check it out. Any source dealing with this topic is valuable. Many greetings!

Dear, I would like to share a reflection ... on what we have become with globalization. Before, we had in each country the production of the basics for our survival and the imports / exports were punctual and in relation to commodities and industrialized products. With the so-called "globalization" we started to focus production in countries that do not always respect honest production scales and started to prepondent the "law of surplus value" - the concern is profit in scale. Today in a world totally dependent on ports, airports and land and river borders, continental countries like Brazil and even continents like the European economic community are hostage to all sorts of difficulties such as having to supply their needs such as respirators, personal protective equipment. , masks, from a single country ... and the application of large overprices and lack of scale production, lead society to collapse. We really have to rethink the world. local production of basic inputs for survival and life support must be a new old reality ...

Unless there is a global immunization, this disease will continue endemically.

Preprint Multiparametric computer simulation estimating the hidden va...

Dear Pedro L. Contreras E. thank you for your input and source to read about the situation on the venezulean-colombian border. What is happening now? Is there any govermental support of those who must be locked down in quarantine and can't work? Could they go to market to buy food? And are there any plans to open the border again so that people could go to work to Colombia again? Thank you!

Thank you for your interest Dear Prof. Jiří Preis

• Border is open already for those with double documentation (Colombian Venezuelan born ones)
• But the rest venezuelan refugees are leaving Ecuador, Peru & Colombia, and many come infected by SARS-CoV-20. According to officials: 41.933 Venezuelans have entered through border areas in the last 2 months: 24,543 by Táchira state border, 10,275 by Apure border, 4,753 by Zulia, 1,954 by Bolívar border (from Brasil this small quantity has returned), 300 for La Guaira and 109 for Amazonas.
• No plans for now for the rest, only for those with Colombia identity cards.

No, maintaining the lockdown for another 12 months is not even possible.

Thanks, Harish Kumar Banga

I think that maintaining closed borders for a long time couldn't be done due to the fear of economical collapse. this will limit trading, investments, travels and other business issues. Many countries have started to decrease its lock-down actions in order to protect their economical systems as well.

I think there is no solid evidence on the efficacy of National lock-downs for reducing the mortality or hospitalisations linked to Covid. Increasingly evidence suggest that the most important policy to contain the virus was the primary prevention, that is the capacity of the health systems and primary care professionals to test, isolate and protect at risk groups, including front-line workers. In most European countries the majority of deaths are in nursing homes where visits were blocked very quickly, this did not stop the virus coming in. So I think closing borders has no sense from public health point of view and dangerous for our economy and democracy.

The quarantine is still the most effective way to fight against pandemics. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140516302092

“The technological developments in transportation played important role in the spread of the diseases in the 19th century. For instance, a cholera epidemic which broke out in India in 1826 reached London and Paris in six years. This seems very topical today considering the problems with airline travel and pandemics such as Ebola, MERS, SARS and Zika. Diseases today can spread geographically faster than at any time in history”. [cited from Travel from Europe to Istanbul in the 19th century and the Quarantine of Çanakkale, Journal of Transport & Health, 2017, 4, 10-17]

Being a pandemic, locked borders will only delay the viral entry and spread. Its eventual rise is inevitable. Social distancing and isolation will further delay the spread. All is done in the hope of getting a vaccine, treatment or a less virulent mutation of the virus in the time bought.

Yes, that a great solution and already proven to prevent and slow down the entry and spread of infections from COVD19.

As for your question, yes the border toward Norway is currently closed.

While the situation here is worrying right now with 1507 new cases and 45 fatalities in a single day or +11% cases with +4% to fatalities

Even I honestly do not think anyone would need to close the border for 12 months. A robust testing, tracking and isolation programs could very well ensure we get this under control, what it takes is that the PHA (Public Health Agencies) stop act like village idiots who cannot admit they been wrong, change direction and start to treat this matter seriously.

And then there's a handful of vaccines in level III testing already, meaning we might have a solution by late autumn 2020.

Eine neue App für den Kampf gegen Corona

Die neue deutsche Corona-Warn-App soll die beste der Welt sein. Sie sammelt Daten über Kontakte zwischen Menschen, um neue Ansteckungen zu verhindern. Warum wird die App so gelobt und wie funktioniert sie?

Barry Turner How do I understand your post correct there? That app tracks you and collect data on who you meet and send it to a central, that make it a problem with the EU privacy law at the start. Even if you have accepted it, it do collect data about whoever you meet - which would require consent in each case.

And how can they say the app is so loved if it's recently released.

I went to the webpage and found that it's supposed to warn the user "notifies user if they have been exposed to SARS-CoV-2" have they made a carte blanch for medical data in Germany?

My reply probably will be seen as negative, but I honestly do not understand how such an app could be compliant with the rules that exist for personal data.

Link to english page https://www.coronawarn.app/en/

Youtube video from Deutsche Telekomm

https://youtu.be/jhQ3Vbx-ELI

I think locked borders have been playing a pivotal role as a precautionary measure to slow-down the country to country virus transmission. Had international borders not been shut timely, the pandemic horror could have inclined to ten-folds of what is it now. Here in Nepal, the open border with deadly affected countries have resulted to be fatal. Though the economic crisis due fallen trades is unavoidable, prolonging the ongoing locked boarders can be effective but at the cost of economy. But at the same time it is important to acknowledge that lock-down can not be imposed forever; it is just a temporary slowing-down measure. A permanent solution must be discovered by hook or crook!

Thanks, Ranjila Shyangbo very well said. What is necessary to take into consideration, that states should communicate together while opening broders and what restrictions are imposed. Especially here in the EU, it is crucial. Has Nepal now opened the border with all its neighbouring countries simultaneously? Thank you!

Locked borders for now is the only option to spread the transmission of this deadly virus along with rapid and robust screening for the timely diagnosis and decide management plan which will definitely stop the rate of virus transmission within the communities with proper facilities to the casualties until herd immunity comes into play. Though it has hit hard to country's economy and now there is high risk people under poverty will die of hunger and face its fatal consequences in the near future. My country Nepal is still under lockdown since past 3 months but has eased within its states to travel and people now are coming back to normal life as it used to be in the past. This has result in rise in cases within the country and again government and supreme leaders are considered to lockdown the country within next few days.

Jiří Preis No, sir the border has not been open yet but there is active illegal trespassing from our neighboring country everyday. Even most of our confirmed cases have positive travel history from those countries. Thank you for your concern.

Closed borders certainly have slowed down and put the breaks on the spread, so I do agree with @Ranjila Shyangbo on that matter though I am not an MD or epidemiologist but I do understand mathematics and exponential growth.

It is with a sigh of relief that some countries in the EU closed their borders again when they did see the number of COVID-19 cases go up again.

My own country and area was not even considered to be reopened.

Even with the official numbers, we see an increase of +14% for the number of cases and fatalities up by 4% for the last week. But most sick here are not in hospitals, and fatalities in homes or in care units are not counted. The statistic only show the number of fatalities in hospitals where one MD have made an official statement on the cause of death, so the actual number is unknown.

Anders Forsgren Thank you sir.

I think there is no doubt among us voting for locked borders in quest of arresting the spread of current pandemic. Many countries have fought down COVID-19 with imposing timely lockdown. Had not there been international flights, land and water route shutdown, this number could have multiplied more from one country to another.

Saying this, it is not the permanent way out against the pandemic. This might have reduced the probable transmission, but the economy of country had been hit hard. In countries like ours where poverty is strangling people, even long lockdowns within country has increased social insecurity, mental health issues and suicide cases. Lockdown between borders now has hit every sector, specially tourism sector which is our main economical backbone; equipment, food materials, raw materials for industries, medicines etc all are locked. This has directly impacted our dailies.

So, it's high time new strategies for border lockdown be developed till herd immunity or effective vaccines develop.

Thank you, Anders Forsgren and Raju Kaiti for your insights from different parts of the world. My country implemented very strict measures at the beginning. Currently, we are having very small number of total cases (about 12k), very small number of fatalities (about 350 altogether), however our economy will perhaps have one of the deepest decrease in the world and goverment plans €19bn national budget deficit for 2020 (originally, before Covid-19, was planned more then 10times smaller deficit). This seems to be a tax for strict lockdown which might have protected us against strong wave of pandemic... But there are still more questions than answers.

Thanks all of you for the expert opinion. of course the spread of COVID can effectively be harnessed through lock borders and some countries have successfully done that in the past few weeks. The country concern have to face certain economic consequences to achieve this objective of controlling the spread of the virus. Thanks

Thanks Amir Nawaz Khan for being a part of this discussion, which gives a chance to share experiences from across the world.

Closing borders may be one of the important factors in reducing the scale of cross-border transmission. However, in order for this restrictive, strict lockdown instrument to be effective, it would have to be applied on a 100% scale. full, i.e. binding for all citizens for the period of min. 2 weeks, which, unfortunately, is generally considered unrealistic. On the other hand, the above question was asked in April 2020, i.e. at the beginning of the 1st wave of the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) coronavirus pandemic. A lot has changed since then. There are tests for the presence of Coronavirus in the body, vaccines for Coronavirus have been created, anti-pandemic safety rules and recommendations for action in public places have been introduced, air ventilation systems in public buildings and air purification in airplanes have been improved, etc. Taking into account the high level of international human mobility, people using different means of transport, tourism and business globalization, it is not possible in practice to completely stop the spread of a virus characterized by a high level of contagion. On the other hand, it is possible to significantly slow down the development of specific pandemic waves through the use of various instruments and anti-pandemic safety systems, improvement of crisis management and pandemic risk management systems, improvement of technologies used to manufacture anti-pandemic products, vaccination of the majority of citizens in the society with the use of highly effective SARS vaccines - CoV-2 (Covid-19) etc.

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz

Historically, closing borders HAS NEVER blocked any epidemics. Moreover, covid is not epidemic anymore, it has turned into endemic.

I have a paper shared here in researchgate regarding this issue: download, read and check the references:

www.researchgate.net/publication/341090032_Human_Quarantine_vis-a-vis_the_State_of_Exception

Dariusz Prokopowicz Thanks for reminding this question after almost one year. I agree what you say and currently officially no borders are really closed. It would be even considered as against human freedom, against constitution in the Czech context. From this point of view, de iure, there is a freedom for crossing the borders. However, there are other measures that do not allow people to that practically, de facto. Most of countries make very special and strictly regulated conditions under which people can enter their territory. So practically, it is not doable even if the borders are not closed. That is something, which I can not imagine still 14 months ago. I always considered the Schengen area as one of the most gains of European countries and I hope that we wil not miss it due to anticovid measures.

Dario Palhares Thank you for sharing your paper, I will find time to read it.