The United States is restricting entry for travelers from Brazil as coronavirus cases spike in the biggest Latin American country, the Trump administration announced on Sunday. Brazil currently ranks only behind the United States in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University database. In a White House proclamation, President Donald Trump said he is banning nearly all non-US citizens from coming to the US if they were physically present in Brazil during the 14-day period prior to travel. The president's order, which exempts green card holders, close relatives of US citizens and flight crew members, is set to take effect May 28 at 11:59 pm ET. Brazil is "experiencing widespread, ongoing person-to-person transmission" of the virus, the proclamation cited the assessment made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Homeland Security. "The potential for undetected transmission of the virus by infected individuals seeking to enter the United States from the Federative Republic of Brazil threatens the security of our transportation system and infrastructure and the national security," Trump wrote. "Today's action will help ensure foreign nationals who have been in Brazil do not become a source of additional infections in our country," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Sunday. "These new restrictions do not apply to the flow of commerce between the United States and Brazil." Earlier on Sunday, National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said that the Trump administration was likely to announce new restrictions on travel to Brazil. Brazil has rapidly become one of the hardest hit countries in the world as the World Health Organization warns that the epicenter of the pandemic has shifted from Europe and the US to Latin America. "We've seen many South American countries with increasing numbers of cases and clearly there's a concern across many of those countries, but certainly the most affected is Brazil at this point," Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's emergencies program, said on Friday during a news briefing at the organization's Geneva headquarters. Brazil has more than 347,000 confirmed cases of the virus and at least 22,013 people have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. At this point only the United States is harder hit in terms of total positive cases. — Agencies
