Trump announces suspension of travel from Europe to U.S. for 30 days

(Image credit: Doug Mills/AFP via Getty Images)

last updated 12 March 2020

In an address to the nation Wednesday night from the Oval Office, President Trump said because of the coronavirus pandemic, he is suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days, with the restrictions not applying to the United Kingdom.

The action will go into effect Friday at midnight. Trump did not say why the UK, which has 460 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus, is exempt.

Trump praised the U.S. government's response to the coronavirus epidemic, calling it the "most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history," and criticized the European Union, saying it "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 travelers from Europe." There are more than 1,200 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S., with the death toll rising to 38 on Wednesday.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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