The Trump administration has extended its ban on European travelers to visitors from the United Kingdom and Ireland, Vice President Mike Pence confirmed during a Saturday afternoon press conference, due to the continuing coronavirus outbreak. The ban is scheduled to go into effect Monday after 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.
Like the ban on travelers who have been in the European Union's Schengen Area within the prior two weeks, the new ban excludes U.S. citizens and their families, Pence said. "Americans in the U.K. or Ireland can come home, legal residents can come home," Pence said. "They will be funneled through specific airports and processed." It wasn't immediately clear to which airports Pence was referring.
The administration's initial travel ban, announced Wednesday, surprised and dismayed some in the industry who noted that the coronavirus already is spreading within the United States. Other countries, Israel, Spain and Kuwait, also have implemented inbound travel bans in an effort to slow the virus' spread.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, 4.7 million visitors from the U.K. and 531,000 Irish visitors in 2018 came to the U.S., spending $15.7 billion and $2 billion respectively.
"The public's health and safety is priority No. 1, and we hope the aggressive steps taken by the federal government succeed in putting the moment of greatest concern behind us," U.S. Travel Association president and CEO Roger Dow said in a statement. "Hearing of the need to further expand travel restrictions—especially the inclusion of our No. 1 overseas source market, the U.K.—is obviously not the development the U.S. travel industry was hoping for. Aggressive steps will also be needed to address the health of the U.S. economy, the small businesses that make up 83 percent of all U.S. travel employers, and the 15.8 million travel-supported jobs that are going to feel a catastrophic impact from coronavirus."