E.U. may ban entry, as France prepares for lockdown

The European Union is expected to approve today a proposal to shut down nonessential travel into the bloc for at least 30 days to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

The ban, which includes exemptions for health care workers and citizens returning home, would not restrict travel between E.U. member states. But 10 of the 26 countries that make up the passport-free Schengen Area are already doing that to some degree.

And in France, where 148 people with the virus had died as of this morning and intensive-care units have hundreds of serious cases, President Emmanuel Macron has ordered the country’s citizens to stay at home for at least the next 15 days starting at noon today.

“We are at war,” Mr. Macron told the nation on Monday, after a top French health official warned of a potential “saturation” of the nation’s hospital system. “The enemy is invisible and it requires our general mobilization.”