ZAGREB, March 12 (Hina) - Croatia has been exempted from the decision by US President Donald Trump on introducing a ban on most travel from Europe due to not being a Schengen Area member state.
The ban takes effect on Friday at midnight, it will last for 30 days and will affect the 26 countries of the passport-free Schengen Area in Europe.
In those states there have been most confirmed cases of the coronavirus infection outside mainland China.
By March 11 there were 17,442 cases of infection and 711 cases of death, and the diseases was exported to 53 states.
The free movement of people among member states of the Schengen area impedes efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Trump said in the decision posted on the White House's website.
Among those countries there is no border control, which makes it easier for the COVID-19 to spread. Croatia, which is not a member of the area, so far has 19 positive cases and no victims of that infectious disease.
It is recommended that Americans planning travel to Croatia should not go if they are ill, should wash their hands more often and should take additional effort to monitor their health 14 days after returning to the US, the instructions by the White House state.
America's well-being always comes first, Trump said in a address from the Oval Office.
In addition to Croatia, countries exempted from Trump's ban are the UK, Ireland, Bulgaria and Romania.
The ban concerns anyone who has been to the Schengen Area 14 days before planning to enter the US.
American citizens, as well as holders of some visas and people with family ties to American citizens or to those permanently resident in the US, are exempt from the ban.
Trump made the decision after the US had begun to feel negative effects of the pandemic, ranging from disruptions in the financial market to sport events being cancelled and schools being closed.
On Wednesday the number of deaths from the coronavirus in the USA reached 37, 29 of which were in the US state of Washington in the Northwest of the US, while the number of cases of the infection exceeded 1,300, data by John Hopkins University show.
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