UK advises against 'all but essential travel' to US amid coronavirus scare

British Foreign Office anunced on March 15 that it is w advising against “all but essential travel” to United States as unprecedented outbreak of coronavirus continues to force countries to take precautionary measures. This also came in light of travel restrictions placed by US government on visitors from UK. 

Even though initially, Britain was excluded from travel restrictions introduced by United States, its Vice President Mike Pence anunced on March 14 that all travel from UK and Ireland will also be suspended effective from March 16 (local time). Both UK and US have reported 1,140 and 3,083 confirmed cases of coronavirus respectively. And while US has witnessed 60 deaths, UK's death toll remains at 21. 

UK Foreign Office said in a statement, “ FCO advise against all but essential travel to USA, due to restrictions put in place by US government with effect from 03:59 GMT 17 March in response to outbreak of coronavirus (Covid-19)”

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It added, “British travellers currently in USA will be allowed to leave. new US travel restrictions are likely to affect commercial flight schedules to UK and we recommend that British travellers who wish to leave by air make appropriate arrangements to ensure ir travel plans can be met.”

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Global pandemic 

World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared coronavirus as a global pandemic after virus spread to more than 156 countries, resulting in deaths of more than 6,000 people worldwide. WHO chief Tedros Adham furr even urged all nations to get very serious over issue and take all necessary measures to contain virus from spreading at this rate. Tedros said, that word 'Pandemic' cant be used lightly or carelessly due to its strong contation. 

However, Tedros also said that coronavirus outbreak is a "controllable pandemic". According to a statement released by World Health Organisation, Tedros outlined two main reasons as to why decision was taken to describe epidemic as a pandemic. Tedros said that one reason was speed and scale of transmission and ors was because 'countries are t approaching this threat with level of political commitment needed to control it'.

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