The United States will keep its borders with Canada and Mexico closed for non-essential travel until at least Oct. 21, said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Friday.
“Non-essential” travel includes transportation for tourism or recreation.
The news release said that the United States and Canada both “recognize it is critical we preserve supply chains between both countries.”
“These supply chains ensure that food, fuel, and life-saving medicines reach people on both sides of the border. Supply chains, including trucking, will not be impacted by this new measure. Americans and Canadians also cross the land border every day to do essential work or for other urgent or essential reasons, and that travel will not be impacted,” according to the DHS.
The continuation of the travel ban does not cover trade or travel by air. It was first imposed in March and has been rolled over several times. The current range of restrictions runs out on Sept. 21 before it was extended Friday.
Statistics Canada said last week that U.S. visits to Canada by automobile had plummeted by more than 95 percent in August compared to August 2019. Canada’s tourism industry says it faces disaster unless Ottawa steps in to help.
But Europe has seen a significant uptick in CCP virus cases in recent weeks. World Health Organization (WHO) regional director Dr. Hans Kluge said that the region’s “tally exceeded 300,000 patients.”
“More than half of European countries have reported a greater than 10 percent increase in cases in the past two weeks. Of those, seven countries have seen newly reported cases increase more than two-fold in the same period,” he said this week.