France says people must stay home to slow spread of coronavirus
India TV NewsFrance said Monday that it would follow other European countries in confining residents mostly to their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the European Union considered closing its external borders to foreign travelers to impede infections. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said people with “the most serious health conditions” should be “shielded” from social contacts for 12 weeks, starting this weekend. British citizens would not be included in the ban, even though the country officially withdrew from the EU on Jan. 31 “Essential staff such as doctors, nurses, care workers, researchers and experts that help address the coronavirus should continue to be allowed in the EU,” von der Leyen said. Asked whether she thinks Europe will return to having its passport-free travel area once the pandemic subsides, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped so and noted that so far “coordination didn’t work well everywhere the way one would have hoped.” Merkel added that public health strategies in the EU should guarantee goods flow freely and ensure that Europeans can continue making cross-border commutes for work. The health ministry’s top infectious diseases official, Sotiris Tsiodras, noted that many young people were returning “from countries where there is a large spread of the virus, such as the United Kingdom, whose public health strategy is to allow the virus to spread.” Separately Monday, the Russian government announced that it has decided to bar entry to all foreigners starting Wednesday and until May 1.