France is closing its borders to people arriving from outside the European Union starting Sunday to try to stop the spread of new variants of the coronavirus and to avoid a third lockdown, news wires reported.

Norway announced on Wednesday that it would close its borders to almost all non-residents in a bid to avoid highly transmissible new strains of the coronavirus spreading, news wires reported. From midnight Thursday to Friday, Norway will introduce the strictest rules in this territory since 12 March, PM Erna Solberg told media.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko on Thursday announced he was putting troops on high alert and closing the country’s borders with Poland and Lithuania, news wires reported. The decision underlines his repeated claim that the wave of 6-week protests is driven by the West.

Border closures do little to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the European Union’s public health agency said, as EU states weigh lifting some travel restrictions imposed at the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe.