Lovers kept apart by coronavirus reunited as border fence comes down

Members of the Swiss Civil Protection Service prepare to remove parts of two fences set up by Swiss and German authorities on the German-Swiss border as a protection measure due to the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland May 15, 2020. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

KREUZLINGEN, Switzerland (Reuters) - He happens to live in Switzerland. She happens to live in Germany. Before the coronavirus, that didn't mean much for Lukas and Leonie, a cross-border couple. Then suddenly, a fence was built between them and they were ordered to stay apart.

On Friday, workers began taking down the fence between the German city of Constance and the Swiss city of Kreuzlingen, which had become a symbol of the division created by the global pandemic, since it was hastily thrown up to shut the border.