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U.S. House Includes U.K., Ireland In Europe Coronavirus Travel Ban

The ban comes into effect at midnight Monday night.

Keep up with the latest updates on the coronavirus at our live blog.

Vice President Mike Pence announced Saturday that the U.S. would be expanding its preventive travel ban to the United Kingdom and Ireland effective at “midnight Monday night.”

A ban on foreign travelers coming from the European Union went into effect late Friday after a hasty and chaotic implementation meant to help authorities contain the spread of the coronavirus.

American citizens are not subject to the controversial bans. Pence, who is heading up the administration’s coronavirus efforts, said Saturday that Americans who had visited areas affected by the virus are “encouraged” to self-quarantine for 14 days upon their return.

Moments before, President Donald Trump told reporters that he was considering domestic travel restrictions but did not offer additional details. Pence later reiterated that the administration was considering a wide range of domestic options. Public health officials have repeatedly stressed that social distancing is crucial to helping prevent the health care system from being overloaded.

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: Vice President Mike Pence speaks in press briefing room at the White House on March 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump also told reporters he was tested for the novel coronavirus Friday night, but did not reveal the results and said he did not know when he would get them. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Tasos Katopodis via Getty Images
WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 14: Vice President Mike Pence speaks in press briefing room at the White House on March 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. President Trump also told reporters he was tested for the novel coronavirus Friday night, but did not reveal the results and said he did not know when he would get them. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

The coronavirus is already a grave public health danger in the U.S., with thousands of people infected and dozens of deaths ― and the numbers are only going to increase as the virus spreads through communities. But at this point a travel ban does nothing to address the primary problem: a catastrophic lack of available testing.

Both the president and vice president have made varying claims about the availability of tests; Trump claimed Friday that a million tests would be available by “early next week.”

Late Friday night, White House and congressional leadership finally came to an agreement on a coronavirus relief bill to deal with the testing gap and some of the financial fallout many American families are facing amid the crisis.

Both Trump and Pence praised the coronavirus relief deal on Saturday, saying they expected it to pass the Senate next week.

“If you’re sick, stay home. You’re not going to miss a paycheck because of the legislation moving through the Congress,” Pence said.

A man walks past the Trevi fountain in Rome, Saturday, March 14, 2020. Italians have been experiencing yet further virus-containment restrictions after Premier Giuseppe Conte ordered restaurants, cafes and retail shops closed after imposing a nationwide lockdown on personal movement. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness. (Photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
A man walks past the Trevi fountain in Rome, Saturday, March 14, 2020. Italians have been experiencing yet further virus-containment restrictions after Premier Giuseppe Conte ordered restaurants, cafes and retail shops closed after imposing a nationwide lockdown on personal movement. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness. (Photo by Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The bill creates a national paid sick leave program for one year, providing two weeks’ leave for workers affected by the coronavirus and reimbursing 100% of the cost to employers.

It also makes it easier for people to be tested for COVID-19, which is the name of the illness caused by the coronavirus, regardless of insurance status.

“This legislation is about testing, testing, testing,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in a statement Friday night.

The White House has also claimed to be working on a website for Americans worried they might have the virus that would provide health care information. Trump said Friday that his team was working with Google to develop the site, but the company later said in a statement that such a website was only in the early stages of development and would only serve people living in the Bay Area of California.

On Saturday, Pence once again asserted that a website was in the works, promising more details Sunday evening.

White House data counts 2,226 official reported COVID-19 cases across the country, with 50 deaths.

“We have not reached our peak,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the infectious diseases chief at the National Institutes of Health.

“We will see more cases,” he added. “We will see more suffering and death.”

Trump declared a national emergency over the outbreak on Friday, allocating $50 million in disaster relief funding. He spent much of the press conference, however, explicitly refusing to take responsibility for testing failures and the federal government’s sluggish initial response to the virus.

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