Trump suspends travel from Europe to US for 30 days amid Coronavirus outbreak

Washington DC: In an unprecedented move, President Donald Trump announced the US will suspend all passenger travel from Europe, except the UK, on Friday for the next 30 days to stop the spread of Coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 4,500 lives, including 37 in America, and sent global markets into a tailspin.

In a televised address to the nation from his Oval Office in the White House on Wednesday, President Trump said the new restrictions will come into effect from Friday midnight and there will be exemptions for Americans returning to the US after undergoing multiple screenings.

"To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe. The new rules will go into effect Friday at midnight," he said.

Trump said the European Union had "failed to take the same precautions" as his administration had implemented to contain the Coronavirus outbreak.

The president said he was monitoring the situation in China and South Korea, and asked citizens to suspend all non-essential travels. He urged them to adopt best hygiene, wash their hands and stay away from large gatherings to reduce the chance of infection.

"This is not a financial crisis. This is just a temporary moment in time that we will overcome as a nation and a world," Trump said.

"We are marshalling the full power of the federal government and the private sector to protect the American people," he said.

Meanwhile, Trump has announced that he will instruct the Treasury Department to allow individuals and businesses negatively affected by the Coronavirus to defer their tax payments beyond the April 15 filing deadline.

In an address from the Oval Office, Trump said on Wednesday he would use his emergency authority to allow individual taxpayers ad businesses to defer paying their taxes by next month's deadline if they have suffered adverse effects from the spreading virus.