The White House has announced that the US is extending Europe travel restrictions to Britain and Ireland due to COVID-19, which will be effective Monday midnight eastern standard time.

During a press briefing, Vice President Mike Pence at a White House said on Saturday, “We suspend all travel from the UK and Ireland, that will be effective midnight Monday night eastern standard time”.

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US citizens and legal residents in Britain and Ireland are able to return to the United States through specific airports, Pence added.

Earlier, President Trump announced the US will suspend all passenger travel from Europe, except the UK for the next 30 days to stop the spread of coronavirus pandemic that has claimed over 4,500 lives, including 37 in America, and sent global markets into a tailspin.

Giving details of the travel ban, Department of Homeland Security in a statement said Trump signed a Presidential proclamation, which suspends the entry of most foreign nationals who have been in certain European countries at any point during the 14 days prior to their scheduled arrival to the US.

These countries, known as the Schengen area, include Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Trump on Friday announced a national state of emergency, freeing up $50 billion in federal funds for the battle against the coronavirus pandemic as he vowed to “vastly” ramp up testing capacity.

The death toll in China from the novel coronavirus outbreak has risen to 3,179, the country’s National Health Commission said on Friday.

The global death toll is now over 4,900, with more than 134,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak “a pandemic.”

More than 4,000 people have died and over 110,000 have been infected worldwide, with the majority in China, though daily infections are now growing at a much faster pace abroad.

The novel Coronavirus outbreak has caused alarm as it has crossed global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic.