Coronavirus: Trump approves additional travel restrictions on Iran, advisories to prevent spread

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday announced additional travel restrictions involving Iran and increased warnings about travel to Italy and South Korea to combat the coronavirus after the health officials in Washington state announced the first death in the U.S. from the virus.

Pence, who’s been placed in charge of the administration’s response, said the U.S. would keep out any foreign national who’s been in Iran within 14 days. The administration is also urging Americans not to travel to areas of Italy and South Korea that have been struck hard by the virus.

Travel from China to the U.S. has already been restricted and Trump said he was also looking at restrictions on entry from America’s southern border.

Trump said the coronavirus victim who died in Washington was “a wonderful woman” in her fifties who was at “medically high-risk” for the illness. Trump said four other Americans are seriously all, and there are currently 22 confirmed cases.

The briefing came after three new confirmed or presumptive cases of the coronavirus illness COVID-19 contracted from an unknown source were reported Friday.

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Pence met with the heads of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the White House situation room Saturday morning.

Trump is scheduled to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland later in Saturday.

At a rally in South Carolina on Friday, Trump defended his administration’s handling of the virus and accused Democrats of “politicizing” the issue. “This is their new hoax,” he said.

His Democratic rivals blasted the comments.

Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, appearing at a “Women for Mike” rally in McLean, Va., said, “The president should be putting politics aside and rallying the American people behind him” but “continues to divide by playing partisan politics. We just can’t do this.”

source: nbcnews.com