EU leaders to hold videoconference Tuesday on virus response

European Union leaders will hold a videoconference Tuesday aimed at coordinating their response to the coronavirus outbreak on the continent, the office of French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday. "To deal with COVID-19, unity is strength. I call on our European partners to act urgently to coordinate health measures, research efforts and our economic response," Macron added in a separate Twitter post.

Macron has contacted European Council President Charles Michel to organise the meeting, the Elysee Palace said. The announcement came as European governments adopt a range of measures aimed at containing the spread of the virus that first emerged in China last December.

With more than 1,100 recorded cases and 19 deaths so far, France is the second worst affected European country after its neighbour Italy, which has imposed a sweeping lockdown on the most hard-hit northern regions. The French government has banned all public gatherings of more than 1,000 people, and some 300,000 students are being kept at home after authorities ordered school closures in areas that have reported the highest numbers of cases.