In a primetime Oval Office address, President Donald Trump announces a 30-day travel ban on foreign travel to the U.S. from most European countries as COVID-19 cases surge across the globe.
Trump's TV address came the same day the World Health Organization officially declared the disease a pandemic. U.K. travelers were not included in the restrictions, nor were American citizens or their immediate family members or legal permanent U.S. residents.
A week later, the State Department issued an advisory that U.S. citizens avoid all international travel because of the pandemic and that those abroad should return home immediately.
Spreading to almost every country, more than 450 million people have contracted the virus worldwide, and 6 million have died from it. The first U.S. vaccinations for COVID-19 were administered on December 14, 2020. Despite the efficacy and widespread availability of vaccines for Americans, the United States leads the world in both total COVID-19 cases and COVID-19-related deaths. By May 2022, the nation reached a grim milestone as more than one million people in the United States had died from Covid-19.
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