EU brings in travel ban as France joins coronavirus lockdown

All travel into Schengen area is suspended while Donald Trump admits scale of challenge

The EU has endorsed the strictest travel ban in its history as France joined Italy and Spain in full lockdown and Donald Trump told Americans to change their behaviour, acknowledging for the first time that beating the coronavirus could take months.

EU leaders on Tuesday suspended all travel into the passport-free Schengen zone by non-EU nationals for at least 30 days in an attempt to instil uniformity across the bloc after some member states, including Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, unilaterally began imposing border checks.