Austria said on Monday it would stop suspected coronavirus cases from crossing its border, a day after it held up a train from Italy for four hours to wait for test results on two passengers.
Austria has yet to have a confirmed case of coronavirus and is extremely wary because of Europe's largest outbreak next door in northern Italy. More than half of freight crossing the Alps passes through Austria.
On Sunday Austrian authorities stopped a Venice-to-Munich train carrying 300 passengers to wait for test results on two suspected of carrying the disease. The two tested negative and the train was allowed to continue.
"As far as the borders and cross-border traffic are concerned, we will proceed as follows: we will further tighten warning systems with our neighbors, we will immediately order a stop in the event of suspected cases, as happened last night," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a news conference on Monday.
He added that temperature checks such as those carried out at Vienna airport on passengers arriving from China would be expanded, without elaborating.
Italy has seen some 150 infections and six deaths. In northern Italy, authorities have sealed off the worst-affected towns and banned public gatherings across a wide area, even halting the carnival in Venice.
Austrian Health Minister Rudolf Anschober told the joint news conference with Kurz that his Italian counterpart would host a meeting with health ministers from neighboring countries in Rome on Tuesday to discuss the outbreak.
The European Commission said on Monday the European Union was not yet considering suspending travel within the border-free Schengen area over the outbreak in Italy, but it was preparing contingency plans.