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Coronavirus: Trump to temporarily suspend immigration to US

Donald Trump has announced he will temporarily suspend immigration to the US due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The US president wrote on Twitter immigration he will sign an executive order due to the “attack by the invisible enemy”, and to protect jobs.

In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020

He didn’t give details and it was not immediately clear how his decision would work in practice, as the country continues to face divisions over how to handle the coronavirus outbreak that has so far left more than 42,000 people dead in the US.

The announcement comes amid more hopeful signs in Europe, where Italy recorded fewer current COVID-19 cases for the first time on Monday.

Europe’s worst-affected country, where more than 24,000 have died, registered 108,237 cases yesterday – twenty fewer than the day before.

Other countries in Europe started easing their lockdown restrictions this week, although looking at the global outlook, the World Health Organization chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did warn the “worst is yet ahead of us” in the outbreak.

WHO warns against reopening economies too soon

As some countries begin to ease their lockdown restrictions, the World Health Organization has warned that rushing to open up economies again will likely lead to a resurgence of the illness.

“This is not the time to be lax. Instead, we need to ready ourselves for a new way of living for the foreseeable future,” said Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the WHO regional director for the Western Pacific.

He called on governments to remain vigilant, and to only ease restrictions gradually, striking the right balance between stopping the virus and allowing economies to function.

“As we move forward in this difficult time, our lives, our health system and approach to stopping transmission must continue to adapt and evolve along with the epidemic, at least until a vaccine or very effective treatment is found. This process will need to become our new normal,” he said.