German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday said that the European Union will impose an entry ban on travellers from outside the bloc for 30 days to battle the spread of the coronavirus.

Merkel further added that member states “agreed to impose an entry ban” into the bloc, with only nationals of EFTA countries and Britain exempt from the restriction.

With countries severely curtailing travel to prevent COVID-19 contagion, Germany had earlier issued a warning against travel worldwide.

Last week, US President Donald Trump has announced a suspension of all travel from most European countries for at least 30 days in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The ban excludes US citizens in Europe and travelers from the United Kingdom, and it also excludes cargo.

Some Texas business leaders said they understand and support Trump’s action, even as they said they expect it to take a bite out of the state’s travel sector.

The Austin airport has only one carrier that flies directly from a European country affected by the travel ban: Lufthansa, which offers service from Frankfurt, Germany. Two others, British Airways and Norwegian, fly to Austin from London, but the United Kingdom isn’t part of the ban.

In 2019, 67,307 travelers flew between Austin and Frankfurt on the Lufthansa route, Dubee said, about a third of 1% of the 17.34 million who came through the airport last year.

The death toll due to the COVID-19 outbreak in China has increased to 3,237, authorities said on Wednesday, while the number of confirmed cases in the Asian country has risen to 80,894.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 80,894 until midnight, including 8,056 patients who were still being treated, 69,601 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,237 people who lost their lives.

The commission said that 119 people were still suspected of being infected with the virus.

As many as 167 confirmed cases including four deaths were reported in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), 13 confirmed cases in the Macao SAR, and 77 in Taiwan including one death. A total of 92 patients in Hong Kong, 10 in Macao and 22 in Taiwan were discharged from hospital after recovery on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday the rights to coronavirus vaccine research were not for sale. The comments, made in an interview with media group Funke, come as scientists raced to develop a vaccine against the deadly coronavirus that has killed some 6,000 people, seen millions placed under lockdown and devastated global markets.

“German researchers play a leading role in drug and vaccine development and we cannot allow others to seek exclusive results,” Heiko Maas told Funke.

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

 (With inputs from agency)