Spain prepared to declare a state of emergency on Saturday and Italy tightened its lockdown by closing down parks, while Denmark and Poland became the latest countries to shut their borders to most travelers in a bid to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
As European countries took ever more severe, though widely varying, measures to reduce contact between their citizens and slow the pandemic, China — where the virus first emerged late last year — continued to ease up lockdown measures in its hardest-hit region.
