US to re-evaluate curbs on China as outbreak improves

The United States will re-evaluate its coronavirus-related restrictions on China as situation in the country improves, US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, as he ordered a halt on travel to the US from Europe beginning Friday.

Trump made the announcement in an Oval Office address to the nation as he seeks to combat a viral pandemic.

"We are monitoring the situation in China and South Korea, and as their situation improves, we will re-evaluate the restrictions and warnings that are currently in place for a possible early opening," Trump said.

The US has implemented strict travel restrictions on China, including temporarily denying entry to foreigners who have been in China during the coronavirus outbreak since early February.

China reported a new record low of 15 new coronavirus cases on Thursday as other countries have become epicenters of the coronavirus crisis, which the World Health Organization described as a pandemic for the first time on Wednesday.

The case count outside China has multiplied 13-fold over the last two weeks to exceed 118,000, with infections now responsible for 4,291 deaths, according to the WHO.

In his coronavirus outbreak address, Trump seemed to be blaming Europe for the increased COVID-19 caseload in the United States.

By Wednesday, there had been more than 1,100 confirmed infections in the United States and 32 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

"A large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe" who failed to take the same precautions and travel restrictions as the US did, Trump said.

"To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days," Trump said, adding the new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight.

About an hour after his speech, Trump seemed to be walking back some of his comments, saying that trade will not be affected by the 30-day travel restrictions.

"The restriction stops people not goods," he said on Twitter.

In his speech earlier, Trump said: "These prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing."

The US president also said there will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone screenings and the travel restrictions do not apply to the United Kingdom.

Noting that the US is at a critical time in the fight against the virus, Trump ordered the Small Business Administration to begin providing low-interest loans to help small businesses overcome economic disruptions caused by the virus, and asked the Treasury Department to defer tax payments without interest or penalties for certain individuals and businesses negatively impacted.

He asked Congress for immediate payroll tax relief.

In a joint statement Wednesday night, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Alarmingly,the president did not say how the administration will address the lack of coronavirus testing kits throughout the United States."

Ron Klain, former president Obama’s Ebola czar, said "there’s a lot of bluster" in the travel ban President Trump put on China and boasted of in his Wednesday night speech.

In commenting on the travel bans at the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, Kain said, "There so far hasn't been much public health results in these travel bans.

"Certainly, restricting foreign travel may slow the pace of its further spread here," he said. "But the president tonight should have focused on what he’s doing in this country to protect the American people from this disease. That is here already. We didn’t hear much about that tonight."