US extends Europe travel ban to include UK and Ireland

Описание: US extends travel (Picture: Reuters) The US will be extending its Europe travel ban to the UK and Ireland from midnight on Monday, amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic.  Donald Trump originally exempted Britain and Ireland from his 30-day ban on flights from 26 European countries, which took effect at midnight on Friday. The U-turn comes after the number of UK infections soared to 1,140 and deaths almost doubled to 21 today.   Trump announced the new restrictions at a press conference on Saturday, when he also revealed he had been tested for the deadly disease and is awaiting results.  American citizens, green card holders and others are still allowed to return home to the US, but will be funnelled to 13 airports and be subjected to health screenings and quarantine orders, US Vice-President Mike Pence later confirmed. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing on coronavirus in Washington DC (Picture: AP) Trump told reporters the number of deaths in the US had reached 50 and said he was considering further restrictions on domestic travel to combat the spread of the disease. Advertisement Advertisement  He faced a grilling from journalists for continuing to shake hands despite medical advice not to, and said his team were not getting the credit they deserved for their handling of the outbreak.  The president said he had his temperature checked before the press conference, and would not have showed up ‘if it had not been normal’. Despite being on the defensive he gave the press a rare compliment and said coronavirus coverage over the last couple of days had been good.   He thanked Americans for coming together to stop the spread of the virus, with local governments taking decisive action to close schools and event organisers cancelling concerts and sports games without being told to. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video  Top US doctor Anthony Fauci said there were 20,226 coronavirus cases in the country and the peak of the outbreak had not been reached. Advertisement Advertisement  Mr Trump declared a national emergency on Friday to speed up the response to the escalating coronavirus crisis. The move has freed up $50 billion for states ‘in our shared fight against this disease’ he said in a statement delivered outside the White House.  The drastic move came days after the US leader gave a rare Oval Office address in which he announced a ban on flights to to the US from most countries in Europe, saying the EU had ‘failed to take the same precautions (as the US) and restrict travel from China and other hotspots’.  He said: ‘As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travellers from Europe.  ‘After consulting with our top government health officials I have decided to take several strong