Your trusted source

With over 200 coronavirus cases and seven confirmed deaths, Italy is the worst-hit country outside Asia. But while towns and villages remain in lockdown, cross-border travel will continue, DW reports.

The European Commission on Monday said it was not yet considering border closures in the bloc's Schengen zone in response to the growing coronavirus outbreak in Italy.

Asked by reporters about whether Brussels was mulling the measure, EU Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides noted that the World Health Organization had not advised imposing travel restrictions in Europe.

Kyriakides said any curbs should be "proportionate and coordinated" among EU states.

Border controls between more than 20 European countries were first abolished in the late 1990s, but some checks were reintroduced during the 2015 European migrant crisis.

Kyriakides' remarks come as the Italian government struggles to contain the worst outbreak of COVID-19 outside of Asia.

The EU's stance echoes France, which borders Italy, in which it has said there was no need to shut its borders over the spread of virus in Italy.

However, bus passengers who arrived on Monday in the southeastern French city of Lyon, from Milan, were kept onboard for health checks after the driver was hospitalized with symptoms similar to those of the new coronavirus, security sources said.

In Austria, authorities had temporarily halted border rail traffic from neighboring Italy.