Simon Ateba is Chief White House Correspondent for Today News Africa. Simon covers President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, the U.S. government, the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other financial and international institutions in Washington D.C. and New York City.
The United States will suspend travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days over the fast spreading coronavirus, President Donald Trump announced at the White House on Wednesday night.
In his televised message from the White House, Trump said the unprecedented move was to protect the United States from COVID-19, the deadly respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Trump said the measures will go into effect at midnight Friday. He said the “strong but necessary” restrictions would not apply to the United Kingdom.
President Trump argued that while the United States suspended all flights from China to protect Americans from COVID-19, Europe failed to take the same strong measures, and as a result, saw a spike in infections, and imported them to the United States.
He said the new travel restrictions would prevent travelers from Europe from importing the coronavirus into the United States.
As the coronavirus spreads, several countries have imposed drastic measures to protect their citizens, including imposing travel restrictions and suspending flights from countries ravaged by COVID-19.
The Trump administration had already barred travelers from mainland China, where the virus originated last December from entering the United States.
It also barred travelers from Iran, which has seen a spike in infections, as well as all people who have traveled there for the past 14 days.
![General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan on February 6, 2020 [Twitter]](https://i2.wp.com/todaynewsafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Abdel-Fattah-Al-BurhanEQJPGmuU4AEVkRG.jpeg?resize=390%2C220&ssl=1 "General Abdel Fattah AlBurhan on February 6 2020 Twitter • Today News Africa")