Donald Trump has announced that the US would temporarily suspend most travel from the European Union, as the country reckons with the spread of coronavirus and the White House grapples with the severity of the situation.

The restrictions, which would begin on Friday and last for 30 days, would not apply to US citizens or to travelers from the UK, he said. The restrictions apply to most foreign nationals who have been in the 26 countries of the Schengen area during the 14 days before their planned arrival in the US.

Trump made the announcement in an Oval Office speech on Wednesday evening on the federal response to what the World Health Organization has declared a global pandemic.

During the rare address to the nation, Trump defended his administration’s response while laying blame on the European Union for not acting quickly enough to address the “foreign virus”, saying US clusters had been “seeded” by European travelers.

“We made a lifesaving move with early action on China,” he said. “Now we must take the same action with Europe.”

Trump also downplayed warnings of a potential recession: “This is not a financial crisis, this is just a temporary moment of time that we will overcome as a nation and as a world,” he said.

“The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low,” he added, but he said that older Americans should avoid travel and endorsed social distancing and avoiding large gatherings. “Every community faces different risks,” he noted and encouraged Americans to listen to local officials.

The president also said he would take “emergency action” to provide relief to workers who are affected. He said he was asking Congress for $50bn for small business loans, and he also called for “immediate” payroll tax cuts.

Trump’s speech comes on a tumultuous day as cases in the US topped 1,000 and the number of deaths rose to 37, while fluctuations in the financial markets continued and Washington strained to respond. Testifying on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned that the outbreak in the US is going to get worse.

“I can say we will see more cases, and things will get worse than they are right now,” Fauci told the House Oversight and Reform Committee. He said it is “10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu”.

In a statement, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the affected countries include: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland”.

The acting DHS secretary, Chad Wolf, said that guidance on the travel suspension would come within the next two days.

The department also clarified that restrictions would not apply to legal permanent residents, or to most immediate family members of US citizens. Trump also sought to quell fears about the effect on trade, tweeting that “people not goods” would be included in the restriction.

Questions raised about effectiveness

The Trump administrators has faced a raft of criticism over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, from the shortage of testing kits available in the US to Trump’s own lack of urgency and downplaying the severity of the situation.

The latest announcement is unlikely to quell that criticism, with questions lingering as to its effectiveness.

Daniel Drezner, a professor of International politics at Tufts University, told the Guardian that limiting travel from Europe would “be a drop in the bucket” compared with the number of cases that are already in the US.

“It seems to me that Stephen Miller was looking for a boogey-man and he found one in Europe,” he said, referring to Trump’s aide, who is an anti-immigration hardliner and reportedly played a key role in crafting the speech.

Democrats also called out Trump for failing to address the shortage of testing kits that has hampered containment efforts across the country.

“We have a public health crisis in this country and the best way to help keep the American people safe and ensure their economic security is for the president to focus on fighting the spread of the coronavirus itself,” said Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leaders of the Senate and House, in a joint statement. “Alarmingly, the president did not say how the administration will address the lack of coronavirus testing kits throughout the United States.”

Some on Twitter were also quick to point out the conflicting messages between Trump, who has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the new coronavirus, and officials monitoring the disease.

Trump’s sudden announcement sparked confusion among travelers from New York to California, some of whom were readying to board their flights as the president spoke.

In San Francisco, a quiet confusion hung over the airport’s international terminal on Wednesday night. Many who planned on flying to Europe that evening had no guarantee that they would be able to return to the United States once their trips had concluded, forcing some to make last-minute calls on dream vacations.

Tulio Mello, 51, was preparing to board his flight to Istanbul when his friend called and told him not to get on the plane. “They had started announcing group one,” he said.

Turkey is not one of the countries included in the travel ban, but a mixture of misinformation, panic and precaution dominated the decisions made at San Francisco’s airport. A number of passengers on Mello’s Turkish Airlines flight left with him, waiting by the airline’s counter for their luggage, some on hold with customer service.

Reggie Chand, 34, and Esther Goundar, 32, were flying through Istanbul to Athens, one of the affected countries, for a two-week trip to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary.

“We got checked in, we got our boarding tickets from here to Turkey, from Turkey to Athens,” Goundar said. “We’re waiting in the lounge area and then I got a text message from my friend: ‘Hey, are you going to get stuck in Europe?’”

Chand and Goundar are American citizens. They did not know when they cancelled the trip they had been planning since October that the ban did not apply to them, but looking back, they still think they made the right decision. “It’s too much risk,” Goundar said. “Even if the vacation goes well, and we come back, either way you stay two weeks on vacation and then stay isolated for two weeks. It’s too much.”

The couple felt a mixture of disappointment and anger over the whole ordeal – Chand had been on hold with Turkish Airlines for more than an hour, looking to get a refund for their tickets.

Jennifer Tseeng, 36, and her husband were planning on flying to Valencia, Spain, for the Las Fallas festival. But then the festival was canceled because of coronavirus fears – and then came the travel restriction.

“Things are changing so quickly and you don’t really know what’s going to happen in the next hour or two hours,” she said.

The couple tried calling the airline, Lufthansa, but the customer service line was overrun, Tseeng said. They ended up driving to the airport to cancel their flight to Spain in person, but after Tseeng canceled the flight, they learned that the rule did not apply to American citizens like them.

In the end, they felt it was best that they postponed their trip for now. “In one day, the whole situation completely changed,” Tseeng said. “We just don’t want to risk not being able to come back.”