World / France suspends all gas, electricity bills & rents amid coronavirus lockdown

Paris: France has imposed a near-total lockdown and the EU is to ban foreigners entering the bloc for 30 days as governments adopted measures rarely seen outside wartime in a draconian effort to curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

As the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged countries to “test, test, test” for the virus, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the citizens must stay at home from midday on Tuesday for at least 15 days.

“We are at war – a public health war, certainly but we are at war, against an invisible and elusive enemy,” Macron said, outlawing all journeys outside the home unless justified for essential professional or health reasons. Anyone flouting the new regulations would be punished, he said.

“There can be no more outside meetings, no more seeing family or friends on the street or in the park,” he said. “We must slow the spread of this virus by limiting the number of people we are in contact with each day to the strict minimum. If we do not, we endanger the lives of those we hold dear.”

He pledged to help both the French economy – with a €300bn (£273bn) package, saying “not a single firm will go bankrupt” – and French households, promising that all gas, electricity and heating bills and rents would be suspended throughout the crisis.

Macron said France’s borders would be closed from Tuesday, although French citizens would be allowed to return home. The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, called earlier on Tuesday for an end to all non-essential travel to Europe.

“The less travel, the more we can contain the virus,” she said. “We think non-essential travel should be reduced right now in order to not spread the virus further, be it within the EU or by leaving the EU.”

Von der Leyen said the restrictions – which would not apply to UK nationals – should last for 30 days initially but may be extended. Permanent EU residents, family members of EU nationals, diplomats, doctors and coronavirus researchers would be exempted, she said.

Officials said the move, which could be approved by leaders in a video conference on Tuesday, was aimed mainly at removing the need for national controls at borders between the 26 members of the passport-free Schengen zone.

France, which has reported 5,423 confirmed coronavirus cases and 127 deaths, closed all bars, restaurants and non-essential shops from midnight on Saturday and creches, schools and universities from Monday morning. Paris closed all its parks and gardens.

Germany, which has recorded 5,813 cases and 13 deaths from Covid-19, introduced border controls with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland on Monday, allowing through only those with a valid reason for travel such as residents, cross-border commuters and delivery drivers.

In line with a growing number of EU countries, the federal government and state leaders also agreed to close almost all shops except food stores, banks, pharmacies and petrol stations, ban religious gatherings, shutter hotels and restrict visits to hospitals and care homes.

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said these were measures “we have never had in our country, but they are necessary to reduce the number of illnesses and avoid overwhelming our health services. The more people stick to these rules, the quicker we get through this phase.”