Washington: The United States is set to temporarily suspend immigration amid rising number of coronavirus cases, President Donald Trump has tweeted.
"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! (sic)," Donald Trump tweeted this morning.
The US - that has reported over 233,00 cases so far - is the worst hit country by the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, it had suspended all the routine visa services due to the pandemic.
While Mr Trump has talked about suspending immigration visa, the H-1B visa, which is more popular among Indian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa.
Due to the novel coronavirus, the US has also experienced a record layoff. Nearly 22 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefit, according to the data last week.
Travel restrictions and closing of consulate services in many countries including India are already having an impact on issuing of new H-1B visas.