Mar 20 , 2020. 4 hours ago – 06:17 | KYODO NEWS

WASHINGTON – The State Department on Thursday issued an advisory to Americans to avoid all international travel, raising its global health advisory by one notch to the highest level of 4 amid concerns over the spread of the new coronavirus.

The move will be a blow to Japan, which is preparing to host the Tokyo Olympics from late July. The Asian country also enjoys close business ties and active exchanges with the United States, with over 1 million Americans visiting Japan annually in recent years.

In the advisory, the State Department also said U.S. citizens who are now in other countries should arrange for “immediate return” to the United States unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period.

With many countries implementing travel restrictions and mandatory quarantines and airlines canceling flights, travel plans could be “severely disrupted” and individuals “may be forced to remain outside of the United States for an indefinite timeframe,” the department said.

In an effort to keep the coronavirus at bay, the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has been barring the entry of foreign travelers coming from mainland China, where the COVID-19 disease was first confirmed, as well as from Iran and many European countries.

Meanwhile, whether Japan will hold the Tokyo Olympics as scheduled continues to draw international attention. Qualifying events are being canceled around the world and athletes are voicing concerns that moving ahead with the Games would put their health at risk.

Trump said Thursday that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told his fellow leaders from the Group of Seven countries earlier this week that he has not yet decided whether to postpone the Summer Games.

“We did discuss it,” Trump told a press conference when asked whether the G-7 leaders had discussed the possible postponement of the Olympics during Monday’s emergency videoconference to coordinate steps against the coronavirus pandemic.

The U.S. president had initially been optimistic about Tokyo hosting the Olympics as planned even as Japan was seeing infection cases on the rise, saying in late February that he hoped the situation would be “fine.”

But the epidemic has turned into a global health crisis, leading countries around the world to take drastic measures to slow the spread of the virus, including border closures and encouraging people to stay at home.

Last week, Trump, who is also struggling to contain the spread of the virus in his own country, suggested postponing the Tokyo Olympics for a year, saying that the move would be better than seeing “empty stadiums all over the place.”

After the videoconference involving the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States as well as the European Union, Abe told reporters that he secured support to hold the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in their “complete form” to prove that “humankind can overcome” the virus.

But he did not indicate whether the leaders discussed any possible changes to the scheduling of the Games. The Olympics are scheduled to run from July 24 to Aug. 9, and the Paralympics from Aug. 25 to Sept. 6.

CR: KYODO NEWS