A health official checks temperatures of people arriving on foot or by car crossing the Polish-German border | Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images Germany expands border controls for EU travelers, minister says Extraordinary measure is ‘further step to protect the population.’

Germany is closing its borders to travelers from other EU countries in response to the coronavirus outbreak, Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said on Wednesday evening.

"Today we are taking a further step to protect the population. We are expanding the restrictions on people traveling into the country to travelers from the European member countries — regardless of whether they travel to Germany via air, rail, water or road," Scheuer said in a statement released by his ministry.

Goods traffic and people working in health care or critical infrastructure are exempt from the measure, Scheuer said.

A statement on the transport ministry's website said that control measures would be implemented for flights or ship travel from Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Denmark ad Switzerland.

People with an urgent need to travel and commuters are requested to bring along evidence that indicates the need to cross the border.

An Interior Ministry spokesman tweeted that border controls now apply to air and sea travel within Europe. He said travel restrictions apply with immediate effect to flights from Italy, Spain, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland, as well as to sea travel from Denmark.

This article was updated with additional information.