In a primetime Oval Office address on March 11, 2020, 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.
Eventually spreading to every corner of the globe, as of early 2023 more than 675 million people have contracted the virus worldwide, and nearly 7 million have died from it. The first U.S. vaccinations for COVID-19 were administered on December 14, 2020. The United States leads the world in both total COVID-19 cases and COVID-19-related deaths.
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