Trump announces 30-day travel ban on Europeans over coronavirus

YEREVAN, MARCH 12, ARMENPRESS. US President Donald Trump has announced a 30-day ban on foreigners coming to the United States from European countries starting Friday amid the spread of the novel coronavirus, reports TASS news agency.

“To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight”, Trump said in his address to the nation. These restrictions won’t apply to the UK, he noted.

The US leader said that the administration was “monitoring the situation in China and South Korea”, and that “a possible early opening” could happen if the situation improved.

According to Trump, “the European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots”. “As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe”, he stressed.

The number of the novel coronavirus cases in the US has reached 1,162, with 37 deaths, according to CNN, which cited the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.