United States President Donald Trump has announced new travel restrictions on Europe to combat the spread of the Coronavirus.
A presidential proclamation issued later specified that only travelers from the 26 countries in the Schengen border-free travel area were barred.
“To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe,” Mr Trump said from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening. The travel order does not apply to US citizens.
A presidential proclamation, published shortly after Mr Trump’s speech, specified that the ban applied to anyone who had been in the EU’s Schengen border-free area in the 14 days before their arrival in the US.
The Schengen area, as defined in the proclamation, includes 26 European states, but does not include the UK or Ireland, which will not be subject to the ban.
Mr Trump initially said the travel suspension would also “apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo” coming from Europe into the US.
