Chaos at Heathrow as huge queues of people try to get back to the US

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Chaos at Heathrow as huge queues of people try to get back to the US while Donald Trump considers adding the UK to list of European countries locked out of America over coronavirus

Passengers are frantically queuing to get back to the US before President Donald Trump bans flights from the UK in the latest efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.

Mr. Trump announced a ban on all travelers coming from Europe but excluded Britain because he believed the UK authorities were doing a 'good job'. 

But he then said on Friday Britain's 'numbers have gone up fairly precipitously over the last 24 hours', causing him to rethink his strategy of fighting the deadly virus.

And fears that he will hit Britain with a travel ban - as the country's official number of those infected hit 798, with 11 deaths - prompted large queues to form at Heathrow's Terminal 5 this morning. 

Hundreds of families and individual travelers were seen waiting in long lines to check-in alongside their luggage for British Airways flights to the US. 

Passengers are frantically queuing to get back to the US before President Donald Trump bans flights from the UK in the latest efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus. Pictured: Queues at Heathrow Terminal 5

Mr. Trump announced a ban on all travelers coming from Europe but excluded Britain because he believed the UK authorities were doing a 'good job'. Pictured: Large queues of travelers waiting to get to check-in for flights to the US

However, some of those queuing were likely to be disappointed as data from the website FlightAware showed that 41 flights leaving Heathrow are canceled today, with another six delayed. 

A further 35 flights due to come into the airport have also been canceled, with six delayed.  

And despite official advice that masks will not guard against getting the infection, some of those at Heathrow were seen wearing them as they waited to board flights. 

The queues come amid uncertainty about what Mr. Trump's decision will be. 

His 30-day travel ban for the rest of Europe, which currently applies to citizens of 26 European countries, took effect from 12am today, causing many Americans in Europe to scramble to buy last-minute plane tickets, in some cases spending thousands of dollars each, in hopes of speedily returning to the US.

One family of three paid nearly $8,000 for three one-way tickets from Paris to New York. 

On Friday night, Delta Air Lines announced it is suspending all flights to Europe and will cut passenger-carrying capacity by 40 percent to deal with a nosedive in travel demand.

The cut in capacity over the next few months is the largest in Delta's history, surpassing reductions that were made after the September 2001 terror attacks.

Delta also said it will stop all flights to continental Europe for the next 30 days - possibly longer - ground up to 300 airplanes, delay deliveries of new planes to save cash, and cut spending by $2billion.

And British Airways said it was fighting for survival amid the global disaster and revealed it will have to lay off staff and ground planes on a scale bigger than anything caused by 9/11 or the financial crisis in 2008. 

Trump earlier declared a state of national emergency, allowing him to access $50billion in emergency funds and unveiling drive-thru testing at major retailers including Walmart, Target, and CVS. 

There are now more than 1,800 cases of coronavirus across the US and 42 people have died