Washington. [EFE]. The American president, Donald Trump, defended this Sunday his decision to veto the entry into the United States of foreigners from China to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, while the White House regretted that Beijing has so far not accepted Washington’s help in the face of the crisis.
“Basically, we have made the closure so that it does not enter from China,” Trump said during an interview broadcast by Fox News shortly before the start of SuperBowl, the 54th final of the National Football League.
►China bans funerals and orders the immediate incineration of those killed by the coronavirus
“We have offered you tremendous help. China), we are the best in the world for that. But we cannot have thousands of people entering (the country) that could have this problem, the coronavirus”, Added the president.
The statements of Trump they were issued shortly before the temporary ban on entry into the United States of foreigners who visited China in the last 14 days, a measure that the US government announced last Friday.
In addition, Americans who have visited Hubei Province, whose capital is Wuhan, will undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine, according to the US Department of Health.
US citizens who have been in the rest of China in the last two weeks must pass medical check-ups at the only seven airports in the country that still receive flights from the Asian country, and are exposed to up to 14 days of quarantine at home to ensure They have not contracted the virus.
The United States is not the only country that has imposed severe travel restrictions following the outbreak, qualified as an international emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Japan has also temporarily banned the entry into the country of foreigners who have recently been in the Chinese province of Hubei, and South Korea announced this Sunday that it will implement the same ban starting next Tuesday.
So far, eight cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States, including one on the east coast (Massachusetts), four in the west (California and Washington), two in Illinois and one in Arizona.
However, the authorities claim to have all those infected under control and have called for calm those who fear that the situation in China will replicate, where the coronavirus has already claimed the lives of 305 people and infected another 14,380.
“There is no reason for panic among Americans. We believe this poses a low risk for the United States, ”Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien told Sunday on CBS News television.
O’Brien acknowledged that the United States “Has not yet received an answer” from China to its offer to “send to public health professionals from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)” and other institutions, and said that this proposal is still standing.
“So far, the Chinese have been more transparent than in other past crises, and that is something we appreciate,” he added.
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