Amid deadly novel Coronavirus (2019-nCOV) outbreak across the world, the US on Friday declared a public health emergency and temporarily banning the entry of foreign nationals who had travelled to China over the past two weeks to contain the spread of a deadly new virus.

According to the Health Secretary Alex Azar, sweeping new restrictions will also be imposed on American citizens, with those returning from the province at the disease’s epicentre placed in facilities for mandatory 14-day quarantines.

During a press briefing at the White House, Azar said,”I have today declared that the coronavirus presents a public health emergency in the United States”.

The directives would take effect on February 2 from 5:00 pm eastern time (2200 GMT), he further noted.

“Foreign nationals, other than the immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents, who have travelled in China within the last 14 days will be denied entry into the United States for this time,” he added.

On Friday, the US government also warned Americans ‘do not travel to China.

International alarm over the new coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, in December, is driven by its rapid spread and the fact that infectious disease experts cannot yet know how deadly or contagious it is.

Earlier on Thursday, President Donald Trump created a coronavirus task force to lead his administration’s response to the deadly virus which has killed 170 people and infected 7,736 others in China, and spread to 20 countries, including India.

The task force is led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and is coordinated through the National Security Council, White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said.

In China, thousands of factory workers on Lunar New Year holidays may struggle to get back to work next week due to travel restrictions. Major firms such as Alphabet Inc’s Google and Sweden’s IKEA have closed China operations.

Four Chinese provinces, including Shandong and Heilongjiang in the industrial rust-belt region, have asked companies not to start work before February 10.

New cases are being reported every day around the world, spurring cuts to travel, outbreaks of anti-China sentiment in some places and a surge in demand for protective face masks.

The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak has climbed to 259 and the tally of confirmed infections has surged to nearly 12,000 on Saturday.

The Coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.