ABSTRACT Treating borders as practices of socio-spatial differentiation has made it possible for researchers to critically engage with their selective constructions of “us” and “them.” Against the background of the pandemic, the significance of this perspective appears far from being exhausted. This paper mobilizes the well-established notion of bordering, ordering and othering to examine the public representation of Czech commuters in the Bavarian border region. Based on a search for the term “cross-border commuter,” the content of two local newspapers is analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively over a period from 2006 to 2021. The analysis shows a fundamental shift in the coverage of Czech commuters as a result of the pandemic, indicating a new (hyper-) awareness of their increased importance on the Bavarian side. It also highlights spatio-temporal differences in their public representation and links them to changing infection rates as well as the multi-scaled efforts of b/ordering the pandemic.