EU calls for continent-wide foreign travel ban

The European Union is calling on member states to restrict all incoming travel from foreigners to the continent for 30 days.

It's asking for Britain and Ireland to join it in the effort.

But within the EU's own borders, its members are putting up their own walls.

Germany has closed its borders with France, Austria, and Switzerland. Poland closed its border with Germany just a day prior.

Huge lines of traffic and confusion.

Unrestricted freedom of movement -- a cornerstone of the European Union -- is ending for now. Europe is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

The EU leadership in Brussels is condemning the internal development. It says this isn't best way forward, and warns the border closings between members may worsen fears of a food shortage or medical supplies.

Elsewhere in Europe British Prime Minister Boris Johnson -- in a move reminiscent of World War Two -- is asking factories to stop pumping out whatever it is they sell, and start making that specialized medical equipment instead, such as ventilators.

At least one company has already said they're ready to answer the call: Rolls Royce, makers of cars and airplane jet engines, although it's not yet clear what they might start making.

The British government is also looking into repurposing hotels as emergency hospitals if necessary.

Britain has so far taken a very different track from the rest of Europe.

While countries like Italy, Spain, and France impose stringent quarantines inside their own cities -- the UK with comparatively fewer known cases of the virus -- has not.

It has drawn some concern from critics that Her Majesty's Government may be working too slowly.

Johnson's administration has previously said that it believes the UK is about four weeks behind Italy and other European countries in infections, and wants to take a staged approach while spreading out the workload on its healthcare workers.

For comparison France is sitting at 5,400 cases as of Monday, Spain 9,000, Italy 25,000 -- the UK much further down the list at 1,500.

That's also less than half of what the United States has reported.