Pence predicts thousands of more coronavirus cases in US

US Vice President Mike Pence says the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic has shifted from Asia to Europe, defending the Trump administration’s new restrictions on travel from European countries.

In a series of television interviews on Thursday, Pence said thousands of more people in the US would be infected with the coronavirus in the coming days.

“We know there will be more infections in the days ahead. We’re trying to hold that number down as much as possible,” Pence told NBC’s “Today” program.

“We’ve recognized ... that the epicenter of the coronavirus has shifted from China and South Korea to Europe,” Pence told CNN in an interview.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that he was suspending travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days in an "aggressive" effort to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is the most aggressive and comprehensive effort to confront a foreign virus in modern history. I am confident that by counting and continuing to take these tough measures, we will significantly reduce the threat to our citizens, and we will ultimately and expeditiously defeat this virus,” Trump told the nation in only his second Oval Office address as president.

Pence, who heads the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force, said the new restriction on travel from European nations was just part of the US government’s strategy to fight the fast-worsening crisis.

The European Union condemned Trump’s move to ban European travel to the US, saying the outbreak is a "global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action."

"The European Union disapproves of the fact that the US decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation," European Council President Charles Michel said in a statement.

Trump bans travel from Europe to US over coronavirus

President Donald Trump suspends travel from Europe to the United States for 30 days in an "aggressive" effort to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic that is rapidly multiplying.

US stock index futures and European airline stocks sank Thursday morning following the news of the ban, raising fears of the pandemic’s impact on the global economy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday declared COVID-19 a pandemic, pointing to the over 118,000 cases of the coronavirus illness in over 110 countries and territories around the world and the sustained risk of further global spread.

The virus, which can cause a sometimes fatal flu-like respiratory illness, has steadily spread in the United States this week, disrupting life and spooking investors who worry that a contraction in economic activity could trigger a recession.

More than 1,300 US cases of coronavirus have been confirmed and 33 people have died, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally.

US health experts have criticized the Trump administration for downplaying the epidemic and lagging behind in testing efforts, making it difficult to gauge the full scale of outbreaks in the United States and curtail transmission of the virus.

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