President Donald Trump in an address Wednesday night announced that the U.S. would suspend "all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days" beginning Friday at midnight as a result of the continuing coronavirus outbreak. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security later clarified the move does not apply to U.S. citizens or their families, and does apply to travelers who have been in the European Union's Schengen Area within the past two weeks.
Trump added that "these restrictions will be adjusted subject to conditions on the ground."
Earlier Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic.
After Trump's address, a DHS statement indicated the suspension applied to "most foreign nationals who have been in certain European countries at any point during the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the United States."
The countries involved comprise the EU's Schengen Area, among which travel is permitted without a passport. They are Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, according to DHS.
DHS said the suspension did not apply to "legal permanent residents, (generally) immediate family members of U.S. citizens, and other individuals who are identified in the proclamation."
(Update, March 11: This report and its headline have been updated with the DHS statement.)