French Prime Minister Jean Castex on Friday said the country would close its borders to all arrivals from outside the European Union, except for essential travel, holding back on announcing an anticipated nationwide lockdown.

The measure will come into force from Sunday to try to limit the spread of new variant cases of coronavirus from abroad. All visitors from EU nations would need to show a negative PCR test.

In a televised statement shortly after Macron held a meeting with senior ministers about the crisis, Castex said he was not announcing a fresh national lockdown for now, adding that "the next few days will be decisive" in terms of any possible new restrictions.

France ordered tighter COVID-19 controls at its borders, increased police action against curfew breakers and pushed for greater adherence to working from home.

Castex said the public health crisis remained of great concern, as France’s death toll jumped above 75,000, the seventh-highest toll in the world.

"We know the grave impact (of a lockdown). Tonight, looking at the data of the past few days, we consider that we can still give ourselves a chance to avoid one," Castex said.

The prime minister also said non-food shopping centers with a surface area of more than 20,000 square meters(21,5278.21 square feet) would be closed and working from home rules would be reinforced.

France recorded 22,858 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, taking the total to 3.15 million. A shortage in vaccine supplies from pharmaceutical firms Pfizer and Moderna has resulted in a sharp slowdown in France’s vaccine deployment.