US to suspend immigration following COVID-19 pandemic

United States President Donald Trump has decided to suspended immigration to the country following the COVID-19 crisis. He said this was needed to protect the jobs of American citizens.

In a tweet, President Trump said, “In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” he tweeted on Tuesday morning.

A record 22 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits over the past month. Millions more were already filing claims earlier. This is an indication of the impact the pandemic has made on the economy.

Retail sales in March in the US shows a record drop as well as the biggest fall in factory output since 1946.

The US has the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with over 7,50,000 infections and over 40,500 deaths.

States and local governments have issued “stay-at-home” affecting more than 90% of Americans to control the spread of the COVID-19.

Trump, who will seek re-election in November, has been slammed for his response to the health crisis. Earlier, he had lashed out at the World Health Organisation for its poor handling of the outbreak in the initial period and and cut US funding for the global health body.

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