French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Friday said the country would close its borders to non-European Union countries for everything except essential travel, while stepping back from announcing a widely anticipated lockdown. The measure will come into force from Sunday to try to limit the spread of new variant cases of coronavirus from abroad. Castex said he was not announcing a fresh national lockdown for now, adding that "the next few days will be decisive" in terms of any possible new restrictions. jmt/har/dl