Alex Brandon / AP Photo
Coronavirus: U.S. extends Europe travel ban to U.K. and Ireland
The Trump administration also said the number of Americans who have died of the novel coronavirus now stands at 50, with more than 2,200 cases in the country.
By Colin Dwyer/NPR
Alex Brandon / AP Photo
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(Washington) — The U.S. is extending the current ban on travel from Europe to include the U.K. and Ireland, effective midnight Monday, the Trump administration said Saturday.
Speaking at the White House, President Trump said he’s considering domestic travel restrictions as well in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
“If you don’t have to travel, I wouldn’t do it,” Trump said. “We want this thing to end. We don’t want a lot of people getting infected.”
The travel ban does not apply to American citizens, legal permanent residents, their immediate families, and certain others. These people will be channeled through one of 13 airports equipped to do special screening.
The Trump administration also said the number of Americans who have died of the novel coronavirus now stands at 50, with more than 2,200 cases in the country.
Trump also said he was tested for the coronavirus Friday night and that the results would be available in a “day or two.” He said his temperature had been taken prior to entering the press room and when asked, he said it was “totally normal.”
The Department of Defense also halted domestic travel for all service members, civilian employees and their families. The Pentagon announced the travel restrictions in a memorandum released Friday night, explaining that — with few exceptions — the ban applies to all personnel assigned to its facilities in states and territories throughout the U.S., beginning Monday.
“These restrictions are necessary to preserve force readiness, limit the continuing spread of the virus, and preserve the health and welfare of Service members, DoD civilian employees, their families, and the local communities in which we live,” Deputy Secretary of Defense David Norquist said in the memo.
The order, which adds to the Pentagon’s foreign travel restrictions announced earlier this month, carves out exceptions for just a handful of “compelling cases” — including travel that’s deemed necessary for medical treatment, a particular mission or humanitarian reasons. Aside from these cases, Defense Department personnel have been told to stay put until at least May 11.
!["If you bring in one or two additional people — once you've lost completely the ability to do any contact tracing — it won't make any difference," Balloux says. The U.S. is in that position now, he says, with far too many cases than it can possibly trace. Balloux calls the new travel restrictions — which are to go into full effect at 11:59 EDT Friday — a distraction. Travel bans, border closures and burdensome quarantines of arriving foreigners have been staples of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nations around the world have wielded them with little consistency during this international health crisis. Last week Israel essentially sealed its borders with the world, declaring that anyone arriving from abroad would have to spend two weeks in quarantine. Saudi Arabia slapped in place a ban on visitors from 14 countries so quickly that airlines, which already had planes en route to the kingdom, had to sort their passengers by nationality, and ultimately fly many of them someplace else. South Korea and Japan instituted tit for tat restrictions on each other's citizens as the outbreak heated up in that part of Asia late in February. A month earlier, on Jan. 31, as the coronavirus outbreak raged in Wuhan, the U.S. announced that it was barring anyone who had been in China in the previous 14 days from entering the U.S. Dozens of other countries also blocked travelers from China. Researchers in Australia say that country's ban on travelers from China was highly successful at limiting the number of coronavirus cases there. From the beginning, since the first outbreaks became widely known, the World Health Organization has advised against blanket travel bans. The WHO has also warned that travel bans could violate the International Health Regulations. But Anthony Fauci, the head of the U.S. National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and a leading advisor to the Trump administration on COVID-19, defended the new European travel restrictions Thursday during a hearing on Capitol Hill. "If you look at the numbers," he said, "it's very clear that 70% of the new infections in the world are coming from that region — from Europe." European infections are seeding other regions, Fauci said, adding, "Second thing: Of the 35 or more [U.S.] states that have infections, 30 of them now, most recently, have gotten them from a travel-related case from that region. So it was pretty compelling that we needed to turn off the source from that region." Later in the day, speaking to reporters at the White House, Fauci said the decision to block many European travelers wasn't taken lightly. "We spent a lot of time thinking about it, discussing it, about whether we should do it," he said, defending the controversial move as "the right public health call." Other public health experts in the U.S., however, are questioning the Trump administration's motivation. Kenneth Bernard a former special assistant on bio-security to Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush sees the headline-grabbing European travel restrictions as an attempt to rebrand the coronavirus issue as "a foreign threat" that Trump is defending the United States against. As the number of domestic cases grows, there's been rising criticism of the administration's response to the crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been accused — even by Fauci — of bungling efforts to set up a coordinated national system to test for the coronavirus. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, says the Trump administration's latest travel ban, even though temporary, could actually be dangerous right now. "With at least 40 states reporting cases, [many] of which are due to local transmission, I think the United States should be focusing on mitigating the impacts of the virus that is circulating within our borders," Nuzzo says. "We have limited resources and need to stay focused on limiting domestic spread," she explains. "If these travel restrictions mean we have to do extra screening, monitoring and/or quarantining of returning Americans, then this will undoubtedly divert resources from protecting vulnerable populations — like the elderly and individuals with underlying health issues." NPR science correspondent Rob Stein contributed to this report.](https://www.witf.io/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/belgium-coronavirus-travel-ban-1920x1315.jpg)
Virginia Mayo / AP Photo
People wait to check in to a flight to Chicago at the United Airlines counter in the main terminal of Brussels International Airport in Brussels, Thursday, March 12, 2020. The European Union has slammed the new anti-virus travel ban announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.
Now, the bill is expected to head to the Senate, where its fate remains unclear.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of noon Saturday, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 — the deadly disease caused by the novel coronavirus — in the U.S. topped 2,200. It is in nearly every state, plus Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
Of the patients who developed COVID-19, more than 40 have died.
“Most states have been impacted, but most only have a few cases,” Nancy Messonnier of the CDC explained in a recorded statement. “And it is still only a few states that have most of the cases and have sustained community spread.”
In a statement issued Friday, Apple joined the chorus of government agencies and businesses announcing sweeping changes to combat the virus’s spread, saying that it plans to temporarily close all of its retail stores outside China through at least March 27. At the same time, the company guaranteed pay for its hourly workers and says it has expanded its leave policies to support employees affected by COVID-19.
“There is no mistaking the challenge of this moment,” CEO Tim Cook said in the announcement. “And yet,” he added, “I have been inspired by the humanity and determination I have seen from all corners of our global community.”
Evidence of this solidarity was to be found in Italy — the hardest-hit country outside of mainland China, where the virus traces its epicenter. More than 1,200 people have died of COVID-19 in Italy, where hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of cases and leaders have imposed travel restrictions on the entire country.
Still, the pandemic has not prevented Italians from singing — even if, for the sake of tamping down on the virus’s spread, they have to maintain their physical distance while doing so. Social media on Friday was awash with videos of people who stepped out onto their balconies, looked around at their neighbors and joined one another in song.
Since the 1.5 years I’ve been living in this neighbourhood, this is the most vibrant I have seen this street! #Covid19italia #coronavirusitalia #litaliachiamo #flashmob pic.twitter.com/bdKgV68Chu
— Yemi Adeyeye (@yemi_adeyeye) March 13, 2020
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