U.S. to Suspend Most Travel From Europe as World Scrambles to Fight Pandemic

In a prime-time address from the Oval Office, Trump outlined a series of measures intended to tackle the virus and its economic effect as he sought to reassure Americans that he was taking the crisis seriously after previously playing down the scope of the outbreak. He said he would take unilateral action to halt most air travel from Europe other than Britain for 30 days and asked Congress to support measures like a payroll tax cut.

“The virus will not have chance against us,” Trump declared in his 10-minute speech, reading from a teleprompter in an uncharacteristically impassive tone. “No nation is more prepared or more resilient than the United States.” He called on his critics to come together behind his plan to address the outbreak. “We are all in this together,” he said. “We must put politics aside, stop the partisanship and unify together as one nation and one family.”

The president’s address came as the virus sent stock markets deeper into a meltdown, prompted the NCAA to bar crowds from its iconic March Madness annual basketball tournament and forced the NBA to suspend its season altogether after one of its players tested positive. Schools, universities, businesses, theaters and sports stadiums shut their doors. And the actor Tom Hanks announced that he and his wife, Rita Wilson, had been infected.

The cascade of announcements felt like a turning point in the crisis, when the real-world effect on people in the United States and around the globe came into stark relief. Ordinary life in many places will no longer be the same as society adjusts to a new reality that transforms everything including the global economy and everyday social interactions — not just in far-off places on newscasts, but in the community right at home.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .