Coronavirus: U.S. Places Restrictions On Travellers From Europe
The U.S. President, Donald Trump, has announced new travel restrictions on Europe aimed at combating the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.
Europe, especially Italy, has become a thriving zone for Covid-19 as cases from Italy now surpass 12,000 with a death toll of over 800.
Trump said the “strong but necessary” restrictions would not apply to the UK, which has 460 cases of the virus.
Trump’s proclamation specified only travellers from the Schengen that allow unrestricted movement among them.
This leaves a number of other European countries including Ireland unaffected.
The Schengen Area is an area comprising 26 European states that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy.
“To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening.
“The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hotspots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travellers from Europe,” he said.
He said the new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight.
Trump, however, said that the travel order does not apply to US citizens.
Just like most countries in the world, the U.S. has also been battling the scourge of Covid-19.
As of Wednesday evening, there are 1,135 confirmed cases of the virus across the U.S., with 38 deaths so far.
The World Health Organisation has declared the coronavirus as pandemic. This was due to mainly the spread and severity of the disease and inaction on the part of many countries.
There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have lost their lives.
Also, thousands are fighting for their lives in many hospitals.
Infectious disease experts have said that the virus appears to be deadlier and more contagious than the seasonal flu.
The death mortality rate has also been projected to be more than one per cent making it at least 10 times as lethal as the flu.
