The US extends European travel ban to UK and Ireland to contain coronavirus

• Vice President Mike Pence announced that the US was suspending travel from the United Kingdom and Ireland in an effort to address the coronavirus outbreak.
• Pence said at a Saturday press conference that the restrictions would take effect at midnight, March 13.
• Americans and legal residents would still be allowed to travel from the countries to the US, but would be funneled through specific airports and subject to screening guidelines.
• The announcement came days after Trump said his administration was instituting a ban on travel to the US from 26 European countries that excluded Britain and Ireland, but he was considering expanding because "numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours."
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The United States is expanding travel restrictions to include the United Kingdom and Ireland in an effort to cut down on the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Vice President Mike Pence said during Saturday press conference that the White House Coronavirus Task Force could confirm that the two additional bans would take effect at midnight, March 13.

Pence specified that Americans and legal residents still in Ireland and the United Kingdom can come home, but will be funneled through specific airports that have screening guidelines.

The announcement comes days after Trump said his administration was instituting a 30-day ban on travel to the US from 26 European countries that excluded Britain and Ireland because they were "doing a good job."

But on Friday, Trump said he noticed the countries' "numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours," and he had been considering adding the UK and Ireland to the list. The ban on travel from central Europe, which is the second-largest home to cases of the virus outside China, sparked backlash from the European Union.

The travel bans appeared to be an effort to address the international spread of the virus, which has been qualified as a "pandemic" by the World Health Organization, which confirmed this week that it had spread to at least 100 countries.