Coronavirus updates Trump suspends travel from Europe, excluding UK, amid coronavirus outbreak- MW
Donald Trump announced that the United States would temporarily suspend most travel from the European Union, as it thought of the spread of coronavirus and the White House struggled with the severity of the situation.
The restrictions, which will start on Friday and last for 30 days, will not apply to the UK, he said. He also encouraged older Americans to avoid any trips if possible.
Trump made the announcement in a Oval Office speech on Wednesday night about the federal response to what the World Health Organization has declared a global pandemic.
In his speech, Trump defended his government's response while blaming the European Union for failing to act fast enough to address the issue of foreign viruses, saying that U.S. clusters were sowed by European tourists.
He made a salvation move with early action on China, he said. Now we must have similar actions with Europe.
He also lowered the warning of a potential recession: This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment that we will overcome as a nation and as a world, he said.
He added that most Americans, the risk is very, very low, he added, but he said that older Americans should avoid traveling and advocate social alienation and avoid large gatherings. Each community faces different risks, he acknowledges and encourages Americans to listen to local officials.
The president also said he would take urgent emergency action, so provide relief to the affected workers. He said he asked Congress for $ 50 billion for small business loans. He also called for immediate payroll tax cuts.
Trump's speech took place on a volatile day as US cases topped 1,000 and the number of deaths increased to 37, while fluctuations in financial markets continued and Washington was tense to respond. . Certified on Parliament House on Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned that the epidemic in the US would get worse.
I can say that we will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are now, immediately, Mr. Fa Fai told the House Reform and Monitoring Commission. He said it was 10 times more dangerous than seasonal flu.
The acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, said instructions on suspending travel would arrive within the next two days, and gave details on who would be affected. In a statement, DHS said the president's statement suspended the entry of most foreign nationals to certain European countries at any time during the 14 days before they arrived in the United States. Scheduled. These countries, called Schengen Area, include: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
DHS added that this does not apply to lawful permanent residents, (generally) immediate family members of U.S. citizens and other individuals identified in the statement.
Trump has also sought to quell concerns about the impact on trade, tweeting that people who are not commodities will be put to the limit.
Hoping to get the payroll tax cut approved by both Republicans and Democrats, and please remember, very important for all countries & businesses to know that trade will in no way be affected by the 30-day restriction on travel from Europe. The restriction stops people not goods.
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Daniel Drezner, a professor of International politics at Tuft University and a contributor to the Washington Post, said the European travel restrictionwas not likely to have a significant impact on the spread of the coronavirus in light of the fact that the virus is already here.“We’re long past containment. We’re in mitigation, and mitigation means dealing with the transmission of the virus here,” Drezner told the Guardian.
Drezner said that restricting travel from China and other countries with high rates of coronavirus infection helped slow the spread of the disease, but he said those places had already imposed travel restrictions and the effects of limiting travel from Europe would “be a drop in the bucket” compared with the number of cases that are already in the US.
“It seems to me that Stephen Miller was looking for a boogey-man and he found one in Europe,” he said, referring to Trump’s aide, who is an anti-immigration hardliner and reportedly played a key role in crafting the speech.
Some on Twitter were quick to point out the conflicting messages between Trump, who has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the new coronavirus, and officials monitoring the disease.
After downplaying the problem, @realDonaldTrump starts out by saying he wants to speak about his administration’s “unprecedented response” to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Others questioned the logic of the European travel ban and framing the coronavirus as a foreign threat that the US has handled better than European countries.
. @realDonaldTrump said we are better than europe in terms of #Corona
He cannot know that.
We have not done adequate testing.
You cannot compare test results if you do not administer tests.
Trump praised his administration’s response to the pandemic, after making cuts to the CDC and disbanding the team that monitored global pandemics.
While Trump is praising his response to the coronavirus in his Oval Office address, what he won't say is that he:
—Disbanded the NSC global pandemics team in 2018
—Made cuts to the CDC
—Limited testing after rejecting WHO tests
—Spread disinformation and undercut expert advice
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Questions raised about effectivenessThe Trump administrators has faced a raft of criticism over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, from the shortage of testing kits available in the US to Trump’s own lack of urgency and downplaying the severity of the situation.
The latest announcement is unlikely to quell that criticism, with questions lingering as to its effectiveness.
Daniel Drezner, a professor of International politics at Tufts University, told the Guardian that limiting travel from Europe would “be a drop in the bucket” compared with the number of cases that are already in the US.
“It seems to me that Stephen Miller was looking for a boogey-man and he found one in Europe,” he said, referring to Trump’s aide, who is an anti-immigration hardliner and reportedly played a key role in crafting the speech.
Democrats also called out Trump for failing to address the shortage of testing kits that has hampered containment efforts across the country.
“We have a public health crisis in this country and the best way to help keep the American people safe and ensure their economic security is for the president to focus on fighting the spread of the coronavirus itself,” said Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leaders of the Senate and House, in a joint statement. “Alarmingly, the president did not say how the administration will address the lack of coronavirus testing kits throughout the United States.”
Some on Twitter were also quick to point out the conflicting messages between Trump, who has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the new coronavirus, and officials monitoring the disease.
Confusion at the airport
Trump’s sudden announcement sparked confusion among travelers from New York to California, some of whom were readying to board their flights as the president spoke.
In San Francisco, a quiet confusion hung over the airport’s international terminal on Wednesday night. Many who planned on flying to Europe that evening had no guarantee that they would be able to return to the United States once their trips had concluded, forcing some to make last-minute calls on dream vacations.
Tulio Mello, 51, was preparing to board his flight to Istanbul when his friend called and told him not to get on the plane. “They had started announcing group one,” he said.
Turkey is not one of the countries included in the travel ban, but a mixture of misinformation, panic and precaution dominated the decisions made at San Francisco’s airport. A number of passengers on Mello’s Turkish Airlines flight left with him, waiting by the airline’s counter for their luggage, some on hold with customer service.
Reggie Chand, 34, and Esther Goundar, 32, were flying through Istanbul to Athens, one of the affected countries, for a two-week trip to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary.
“We got checked in, we got our boarding tickets from here to Turkey, from Turkey to Athens,” Goundar said. “We’re waiting in the lounge area and then I got a text message from my friend: ‘Hey, are you going to get stuck in Europe?’”
Chand and Goundar are American citizens. They did not know when they cancelled the trip they had been planning since October that the ban did not apply to them, but looking back, they still think they made the right decision. “It’s too much risk,” Goundar said. “Even if the vacation goes well, and we come back, either way you stay two weeks on vacation and then stay isolated for two weeks. It’s too much.”
The couple felt a mixture of disappointment and anger over the whole ordeal – Chand had been on hold with Turkish Airlines for more than an hour, looking to get a refund for their tickets.
Jennifer Tseeng, 36, and her husband were planning on flying to Valencia, Spain, for the Las Fallas festival. But then the festival was canceled because of coronavirus fears – and then came the travel restriction.
“Things are changing so quickly and you don’t really know what’s going to happen in the next hour or two hours,” she said.
The couple tried calling the airline, Lufthansa, but the customer service line was overrun, Tseeng said. They ended up driving to the airport to cancel their flight to Spain in person, but after Tseeng canceled the flight, they learned that the rule did not apply to American citizens like them.
In the end, they felt it was best that they postponed their trip for now. “In one day, the whole situation completely changed,” Tseeng said. “We just don’t want to risk not being able to come back.”
MW
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