Trump’s coronavirus travel restrictions on Europe have many exceptions

The European travel restrictions set to take effect midnight Friday will not apply to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, their families and an array of other travelers, according to the presidential proclamation issued Wednesday, exemptions that make the measures less severe than President Donald Trump’s initial announcement suspending “all travel.”

Travelers arriving from Europe will be routed to 10 to 15 designated U.S. international airports likely to include most of the large commercial hubs that already receive those flights, according to a senior administration official involved with the planning. U.S. border officials and contracted medical personnel will screen those passengers for symptoms but they will not be tested for coronavirus, the official said.

The Trump administration has been widely criticized for failing to acquire and distribute testing kits, as other nations including South Korea have done.

[Europe blindsided by Trump’s travel restrictions]

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said in a statement late Wednesday that the restrictions on 14 European nations would be similar to those already in place for foreign travelers who had been to China and Iran, where coronavirus outbreaks have been severe. Wolf said he would issue more detailed guidelines in the next 48 hours, explaining how the measures will alter travel during the next 30 days as authorities try to control the spread of the virus.

While Trump's restrictions on European travelers have little precedent in the modern era, they are not as sweeping as a suspension of "all travel," as the president announced in his address to the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night.

"In January and February, the administration issued similar travel restrictions on individuals who had been in China and Iran," Wolf said. "That action proved to be effective in slowing the spread of the virus to the U.S., while public health officials prepared."

The proclamation will bar tourists and other short-term visitors, as well as immigrant visa holders. But it exempts a broad range of other travelers: the parents or legal guardians of U.S. citizens and green-card holders under age 21, children in the process of being adopted, the family members of U.S. service members and "any alien whose entry would not pose a significant risk of introducing, transmitting, or spreading the virus, as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the CDC Director or his designee," among others.

The president made little mention of those exceptions in his address Wednesday evening, and there were reports early Thursday of panicked Americans arriving at European airports fearing they would not be able to return home.

"To keep new cases from entering our shores, we will be suspending all travel from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days," Trump said in his address. "There will be exemptions for Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings, and these prohibitions will not only apply to the tremendous amount of trade and cargo but various other things as we get approval. Anything coming from Europe to the United States is what we are discussing. These restrictions will also not apply to the United Kingdom," Trump said.

White House officials later clarified that commercial goods will be exempted as well.

The United Kingdom was exempted because of its long-standing ties to the United States, according to the senior official, and because its health care system is perceived to be more effective.

Meanwhile, European officials on Thursday strongly condemned Trump's decision to severely restrict travel from their countries, saying they were blindsided by the sudent move that many saw as politically motivated.

In a short statement - rare in its directness - the European Union expressed exasperation.

"The Coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action," the statement read, co-signed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel.

"The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation."

Across the 26 nations hit by the ban, there were 21,080 active cases of coronavirus as of Thursday morning, and 952 deaths, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Italy was the locus of the pandemic, with more than half of the active cases - 10,590 - and the vast majority of deaths, 827.

Britain had 430 active cases and eight deaths, while Ireland had 42 active cases and one death. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar planned to meet Trump on Thursday in Washington as part of events related to St. Patrick's Day, which is Tuesday.

Some in Europe wondered if Britain and Ireland were exempted because they contain Trump-owned properties.

In any case, the decision appeared to confound even leaders of the British government and former U.S. homeland security officials, who said that scientific evidence did not support travel restrictions.