LONDON – The European Union on Thursday slammed President Donald Trump's decision to "unilaterally" impose a sweeping ban on travel from European countries to the United States as part of efforts to stop the rapid spread of the coronavirus.

"The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and President of the European Council Charles Michel said in a joint statement.

They said Trump's move was taken "without consultation" from the EU.

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Trump announced Wednesday night that he was taking the action to stem the spread of the virus that has infected more than 118,00 people and killed over 4,300 worldwide. He said he was suspending most travel from 26 countries in Europe. The restrictions apply to the bloc's Schengen Area – countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders – for 30 days. It begins Friday.

The restrictions do not apply to the United Kingdom.

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The U.S. death toll stood at 38 early Thursday, with more than 1,300 confirmed cases. The travel ban also does not apply to Americans who have undergone appropriate screenings. In interviews with CNN and NBC on Thursday, Vice President Mike Pence further clarified that the U.S. will ask every American and legal resident who returns from Europe over the next 30 days to self-quarantine for 14 days. Pence said Americans returning from Europe will be funneled through 13 airports.

Rishi Sunak, Britain's treasury minister, said in a BBC TV interview that the British government does not back Trump's ban. "We (don't believe) that's the right thing to do," he said. "The evidence here doesn't support that."

Sunak's comments were echoed by Tom Bossert, a former homeland security adviser in the Trump administration, who tweeted: "Earlier, yes. Now, travel restrictions/screening are less useful. We have nearly as much disease here in the US as the countries in Europe. We MUST focus on layered community mitigation measures-Now!"

Damon Wilson, executive vice president of the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C., global affairs think tank, said "rather than consulting and mobilizing our allies and global partners to tackle a truly global problem, we’re erecting more walls. We need serious measures to tackle coronavirus but the challenge demands a coordinated response."

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The British government modestly stepped up its response to the coronavirus Thursday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson chaired a meeting of the government's emergency committee. There are 596 confirmed cases in Britain and Johnson has been reluctant to close schools, ban or restrict large gatherings and encourage people to work from home over concerns that aggressive interventions may need to be reserved for the virus' peak.

Nearby Ireland has already announced that it is closing all schools and cultural institutions until March 29, in a major escalation of its response to the disease. Ireland, which has 43 cases of the virus, is also excluded from the U.S. travel ban.

In a press conference, Johnson called the outbreak the "worst public health crisis in a generation" and asked anyone in Britain with fever or a persistent new cough to self-isolate for seven days. School trips abroad were banned. He said more stringent measures would be gradually announced over the next several weeks.

EU member Italy remains the worst affected country in Europe, with 12,462 cases and over 1,000 deaths and reports that have emerged in recent days from the country's north, which has the highest number of infections, have indicated that doctors are having to make difficult choices about who to treat because of a shortage of critical care beds and other medical supplies such as ventilators, testing kits and portable X-ray machines.

The European Central Bank launched a package of measures to shield EU countries that use the euro currency from the economic havoc created by coronavirus, with planned bond purchases totaling 120 billion euros ($135 billion) and cheap loans to banks. But markets in Europe continued to be roiled by worldwide panic over the virus and when trading on Wall Street opened an early plunge triggered a trading halt. All three main U.S. stock gauges traded near bear-market territory.

Speaking Thursday before the House Oversight Committee, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the UK was exempted from the Trump administration's travel ban because of a "difference in the ease of transportation between the European countries and the UK."

Fauci did not elaborate on what he meant by "ease of transportation."

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Elsewhere Thursday, Iran's health ministry said it has asked the International Monetary Fund for a $5 billion loan as the virus sweeps across the Middle East nation. Iran has more than 10,000 cases and 429 deaths and years of sanctions have left it poorly placed to deal with an expanding pandemic that is testing global health authorities. For days, Iran experts have been warning that the country may be under-reporting cases.

The office of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that he and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, are quarantining themselves at home after she returned from a trip to Britain with a low fever late Wednesday. She is now being tested for coronavirus. Trudeau may be the first world leader who is in self-isolation.

And in Brazil, a government official who attended an official meeting at Trump's Mar-A-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday and posted a photo of himself standing next to the U.S. president, has tested positive for coronavirus. Fabio Wajngarten is Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's communications secretary. Brazilian media reported that Bolsonaro was also being tested for the virus Thursday.