President Donald Trump said he will significantly restrict travel from Europe to the U.S. for the next 30 days, the most far-reaching measure yet in the administration’s efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus.
Trump, speaking Wednesday evening from the Oval Office, said the restrictions, which won’t apply to the U.K., will go into effect Friday at midnight. He blamed the European Union for not curbing travel from China in the early days of the outbreak, and credited his own measures with having limited the number of cases in the U.S.
“The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots,” Trump said. As a result, “clusters” of infection in the U.S. “were seeded by” European travelers, he added.
In a statement following Trump’s address, Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf clarified that the administration was suspending the entry of most foreign nationals who have been in any of 26 European nations in the previous two weeks.
The restriction does not apply to legal permanent residents and immediate family members of U.S. citizens. Wolf said U.S. citizens arriving from Europe will travel through specific airports where they can undergo screening for the virus.
The president scheduled the remarks to lay out his plan for dealing with the rapid spread of a disease he labeled a “foreign virus” that has led to more than 1,100 infections in the U.S. and ravaged markets. The S&P 500 closed Wednesday 19% lower than its February high, with every industry down at least 3.9% on the day.
“This is not a financial crisis,” Trump said. “This is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome as a nation and as a world.”
The World Health Organization earlier Wednesday declared the outbreak is now a pandemic and urged governments to step up containment efforts as the number of worldwide cases topped 123,000 and deaths exceeded 4,500.