The United States land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least August 21, the United States Department of Homeland Security reported Wednesday.
The 30-day extension came after Canada announced Monday that it will begin allowing fully vaccinated American visitors into the country on August 9 for non-essential travel.
For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Relations communicated on its social networks that “the United States Government has informed us about the decision to extend the partial closure of the border for another month.” He specified that he will continue with the bilateral dialogue and reiterated that the accelerated rate of vaccination against Covid-19 at the border creates conditions to advance for mutual benefit.
Limitations on land transit between the United States and Mexico were implemented on March 21, 2020, as a measure to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Since then, the two countries have closed the border of more than 3,000 km to non-essential land traffic, such as tourists or occasional visitors, but allow the passage of goods, workers, or students.
The Mexican government plans to complete the immunization of the population of its neighboring municipalities with the United States to reopen the border. The Mexican Foreign Ministry said, however, that the talks with the neighboring country “continue.”
The acceleration in immunization against Covid-19 at the border creates conditions to advance for mutual benefit, “the agency said in a tweet.
The Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, and the Secretary of National Security of the United States, Alejandro Mayorkas, met last June, in Mexico, to agree on the measures that both nations would take to reopen their land border.
Ebrard said then that the dates for the reopening depended on the levels of vaccination against Covid-19 in Mexican cities bordering the United States.
Mexico, of 126 million inhabitants, began its vaccination program for all those of legal age in the border area on June 17 with doses of Johnson & Johnson donated by the US government.
The United States exceeds 34.1 million infected people and 609,000 deaths, while Mexico registered 2.6 million confirmed cases and 236,810 deaths from Covid-19 until Tuesday.
Source: eleconomista.com.mx
