Donald Trump Annouces Travel Ban From 26 European Countries To Protect Against Coronavirus

US President Donald Trump has announced all travel from Europe will be banned from coming to America because of the coronavirus.

Mr Trump acknowledged that the move was 'strong but necessary' to ensure Covid-19 doesn't spread further in North America.

The President made the announcement during a rare televised event, revealing the ban will come into effect by midnight tomorrow (Wednesday 12 March) and will last for 30 days.

"We have seen dramatically fewer cases of the virus in the United States than are now present in Europe," Trump told the nation.

Pixabay

"The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travellers from Europe."

The travel restrictions will not apply for people coming from the UK or Ireland.

It will, however, affect 26 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Mr Trump continued: "We are at a critical time in the fight against the virus.

"We made a life-saving move with early action on China. Now we must take the same action with Europe. We will not delay.

PA

"I will never hesitate to take any necessary steps to protect the lives, health and safety of the American people. I will always put the well-being of America first.

"We must put politics aside, stop the partisanship, and unify together as one nation and one family.

"Acting with compassion and love, we will heal the sick, care for those in need, help our fellow citizens, and emerge from this challenge stronger and more unified than ever before."

Italy has become the European leader for coronavirus cases, with the country also having the highest number of infections outside of China.

It has more than 12,000 confirmed cases and a death toll of 827.

There have been more than 1,300 cases of Covid-19 in America and a little more than 125,000 cases globally. More than half of those people have since recovered, however 4,630 have died.

Topics: World News, coronavirus, US News, travel

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie