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President Donald Trump speaks on the US response to the coronavirus in a speech broadcast from the Oval Office of the White House on March 11, 2020.

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REUTERS/Tom Brenner

US President Donald Trump has banned travel from 26 other countries for 30 days in a bid to halt the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Trump abruptly announced the ban on Wednesday, shocking Europe and the markets, sending airline stocks plunging, and forcing the White House to issue urgent clarifications.

The ban stops travel from 26 countries, and excludes US citizens and some other groups. It doesn’t stop Americans travelling in the other direction to Europe.

But the ban excludes the UK and Ireland, which have visa-free travel and high levels of movement with those 26 countries, raising doubts about how the ban could work.

Here’s how it works and who it affects.

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President Donald Trump abruptly announced a ban on travel from 26 European countries on Wednesday as he ramped up the US’s response to the deadly coronavirus that is spreading across both the European Union and the US.