Shutdowns Spread Across Europe as Spain and France Order Broad Restrictions

PARIS — The shutdown of Europe expanded drastically on Saturday as more countries shuttered businesses, locked up borders and chased people off streets and into their homes in a race to contain the growing threat of the coronavirus.

Spain became the second country in Europe, after Italy, to impose strict limits on public life, telling everyone to stay indoors, with few exceptions. As cases soared nationwide, the authorities confirmed that the prime minister’s wife had been infected.

In France, cafes and restaurants — central to the country’s soul and social life — were ordered closed along with most other nonessential businesses.

In the United States, Vice President Mike Pence widened the American travel ban to include Britain and Ireland, effectively shutting off travel from nearly 30 European countries, while the White House said that President Trump had tested negative for the virus.

Across Europe, there was a widespread feeling that the health crisis flaying Italy for weeks had arrived at the doorsteps of its neighbors, and that the time for hoping the threat would somehow dissipate without sweeping intervention was over.