President Trump is considering new measures against vicious coronavirus – a domestic travel ban, a measure suggested if things get “a bit out of control”.
In three days, COVID-19 cases more than doubled, and further rose to over 6000 on 17 March with death cases over 100. Now, U.S. are dealing with more than 250.000 confirmed cases and more than 2900 deaths.
Therefore, the biggest problems, for now, are delayed testing and a community spread, because not enough test kits are available across states.
Furthermore, the first coronavirus case in the US was reported on 21 January but the cases soared from the second half of February.
In that light, new and more radical measures are up to tackle the virus, like the above mentioned domestic travel ban, among other necessary measures.
The notion of domestic travel ban came on Wednesday as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued an advisory regarding travel within the U.S. The advisory was announced on CDC’s website with the headline saying: “Should I travel within the United States?”
Furthermore, it is stated that usually, CDC isn’t issuing advisories or restrictions for travel within the States.
In that light, CDC advises that places like airports or travel settings that are crowded should be avoided as being there increases chances for infection.
Moreover, CDC suggests things to consider before traveling like to check is COVID-19 spreading in the area where a passenger is going.
Therefore, questions like “who will be your travel companion and in which age group does he/she fit” or “do you have a what-to-do plan in case you are told to stay in quarantine”, should be asked before the travel.
Given the circumstances, President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence announced that the government is considering a domestic travel ban to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
Furthermore, the domestic travel ban will help prevent crowds and for infected people to transmit the virus to healthy people.
The United Kingdom and Ireland are added to the Europe travel restrictions, as the number of cases in those countries soared immensely in the last few days.
These restrictions imply that residents of the U.K. and Ireland are excluded from traveling to the U.S. for 30 days, from Monday.
Also, since other countries are under lockdown as well, it’s certainly recommended not to travel.
Nevertheless, airlines are most likely going to sharply cut flights between the U.S. and London and Ireland.
Furthermore, Delta and American Airlines banned all flights between the States and the 26 European countries.
Justifiably, President Trump said that he would recommend against traveling and that in America’s best interest is the prevention of new people getting infected.
Therefore, the domestic travel ban is probably the most efficient measure with the effect to instantly slow down the spread of COVID-19, among other measures considered.
However, domestic travel ban with the extension of domestic flight restriction would additionally disable an already struggling U.S. airline industry and cause more cuts in flights.
Moreover, Southwest Airlines, America’s largest domestic carrier, is probably going to face extreme hit in flights as they already have had a “9/11-like” drop in bookings.
As we all see, the government is considering and assembling many methods to stop the virus. For now, the best thing that can be done is to slack the spread, at least until the vaccines for COVID-19 come to light.
Anyhow, the domestic travel ban is, for now, probably the best measure to suppress the virus and not just in the U.S. but in many other countries.