By Bojan Pancevski in Berlin, Giovanni Legorano in Rome and Jason Douglas in London
Updated March 2, 2020 5:31 pm ET
European governments are divided in their response to the coronavirus, which has rapidly hopped across borders on the densely populated continent, as they seek to balance protecting public health with economic disruption.
Countries including Italy, France, Britain and Switzerland have taken an aggressive approach, banning large events and ordering large-scale blanket screenings. Germany, Austria, Spain and most Scandinavian countries, on the other hand, have stressed the need for moderation to limit the impact of the disease—and of the response—on society and the economy.
The different approaches highlight the difficulty in coordinating a crisis-management system on a continent where political borders offer little barrier to the spread of the virus. They also expose anxiety among Europe’s leaders that the economic impact of the epidemic could turn a lingering downturn into a full-blown recession.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel said over the weekend that Europe’s most populous nation and its biggest economy would be measured and moderate in its response. Germany has reported around 160 infections.
“We must not allow for this virus to damage or ruin the economic upturn that has just emerged on the horizon,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said Monday.
Ms. Merkel and her Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz agreed during a phone call last week to avoid border closures or any steps that would interrupt supply chains and adversely affect business, said people familiar with the talks.
And while Italy has announced measures to cushion the economic impact of the epidemic in the country’s economically strong northern region, the location of Europe’s worst outbreak so far, officials in Berlin and Vienna said they weren’t now planning any fiscal stimulus.
The novelty of the virus means governments have largely improvised their responses. Still, the World Health Organization has praised China’s draconian response to the virus. After the outbreak started there, Beijing sealed off entire regions and millions of people were put under lockdown—hitting the local and global economy hard.
The WHO’s recommendation for affected countries has been to trigger the top general health alert level and test all patients with atypical pneumonias for the presence of the virus. While about 80% of novel coronavirus patients only experience mild discomfort, others can develop severe respiratory problems and organ failure.
Germany, Austria and other countries haven’t followed up on those guidelines, nor have they banned large public events or ordered mass closures of schools and kindergartens. Germany set its alert level to “moderate” on Monday. It and others have limited testing to people with symptoms who had traveled to affected areas or had contact with infected individuals. People with severe influenza symptoms have occasionally been tested.
On Monday, the German government servers hosting information about the virus became overloaded and hotlines clogged. Many doctors have complained about the absence of guidelines or material support from the country’s regional health authorities—their first resource in an emergency.
Officials have pushed back against the criticism, saying they had to balance several priorities. “We cannot do what China has done here, as that would start a panic, runs on supermarkets and banks, and any contingency measure has a negative effect on businesses and the real economy,” said a senior German government official involved in the crisis management.
Christian Drosten, head of the virology department at Berlin’s Charité hospital, the country’s largest, told a press conference on Monday “people die anyway, and at the rate of around 850,000 a year” in Germany.
Officials in Spain, which had reported 114 patients by Monday night, said it was focused on containing pockets of coronavirus outbreak, but has no plans to cancel public events. Spanish authorities said they may consider temporarily shutting some schools in the Madrid and Basque Country regions and banning public gatherings such as sport events, should the number of infections rise.
Many cases in Spain have been imported from Italy, said Spanish authorities. For instance, a group of five Italian tourists tested positive in the Canary Islands. About 1,000 people at the hotel where they were staying were put under quarantine last week.
“Right now in Spain we are maintaining a phase of containment. In this phase, at this time, we are not recommending the suspension of social events,” said Fernando Simón, director of the center for health alerts and emergencies at the Ministry of Health. In particular, he cited planned demonstrations throughout Spain scheduled for International Women’s Day on Sunday March 8.
By contrast, Italy’s government declared a state of medical emergency on Jan. 31, which gives the central government power to override local authorities. On the same day, Italy banned all direct flights to and from China, the only EU country to do so.
The measures, however, didn’t prevent Italy from becoming the center of the coronavirus crisis in Europe, with 2,036 people confirmed infected by Monday, according to Italy’s Civil Protection Agency. Of those, 52 have died and 149 have fully recovered. Italy now has the world’s third-highest number of cases after China and South-Korea.
Italy has sealed off entire towns in its heavily affected northern region and tested 20,000 people, many with no symptoms. After these blanket tests returned a high percentage of negative results, authorities have adopted a more targeted approach, testing only symptomatic patients.
In neighboring Switzerland, all events involving over 1,000 participants—including soccer games and political rallies—were banned. The government has summoned a crisis summit for next week with business, unions and local authorities to discuss a possible fiscal and monetary stimulus, according to a government statement.
France, which has roughly the same number of cases as Germany, has banned all gatherings of over 5,000 people, with some regions barring all public events. To help curb the contagion, the government has advised people to stop shaking hands and abandon the customary greeting of a kiss on the cheek.
In the U.K., where 40 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed, health authorities have tested more than 13,500 people for the virus in an effort to track down potential carriers. The efforts have so far focused on those returning from Asia, Iran and Italy and those who have been in contact with an infected person. At Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest, medical personnel are examining travelers arriving from China for symptoms around the clock.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday chaired a meeting of senior ministers and medical officials to discuss further measures. The government has granted health professionals the legal powers to detain patients at risk of spreading the illness. An information campaign about best practices to slow the transmission is due to roll out within days.
The U.K. has stopped short of canceling sporting events or other large gatherings for now. Mr. Johnson said Monday people should in most cases go about their business as usual.
The U.K. government is due to announce further steps to combat the virus Tuesday. They will include encouraging workers to stay at home if possible and drawing up a register of retired healthcare professionals who can be pressed into service if needed, Downing Street said late Monday.
“It is highly likely coronavirus will spread more widely in the coming days and weeks, which is why we’re making every possible preparation,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement.
—Sara Germano in Berlin contributed to this article.
