US extends travel curbs at Canada and Mexico land borders

Non-essential travel restrictions extended for another month through August 21

Canada announced on Monday it will start allowing in fully vaccinated US visitors on August 9. AFP

The US government on Wednesday extended the closure of land borders with Canada and Mexico to non-essential travel such as tourism through August 21 even as officials debate whether to require visitors to have received a Covid-19 vaccine.

The latest 30-day extension by the Department of Homeland Security came after Canada announced on Monday it will start allowing in fully vaccinated US visitors on August 9 for non-essential travel after the Covid-19 pandemic forced a 16-month ban that many businesses have called destructive.

The department said on Wednesday it “is in constant contact with Canadian and Mexican counterparts to identify the conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably".

One difficult question for President Joe Biden's administration is whether to follow Canada's lead and require all visitors to be vaccinated for Covid-19 before entering the US, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The White House plans a new round of high-level meetings this week to discuss the travel restrictions and the potential of mandating Covid-19 vaccines for visitors, but no decisions have been made, the sources said.

The review comes amid increasing concern among US officials about the Delta variant. US health officials have reported sizeable increases in Covid-19 cases and deaths, with outbreaks occurring in parts of the country with low vaccination rates.

The White House last month launched inter-agency working groups with the EU, the UK, Canada and Mexico to look at how to eventually to lift travel and border restrictions.

Businesses in Canada and the US, particularly the travel and airline industries, have pushed for an end to restrictions on non-essential travel between the two countries, which were imposed in March 2020 early in the pandemic.

Since then, the land border has remained closed to all non-essential travel. The US has allowed Canadians to fly in, though they must first receive a negative Covid-19 test, as do nearly all US-bound international air travellers. Canada has not allowed Americans to do the same.

Unlike international air passengers, travellers crossing US land borders do not need negative Covid-19 tests.

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, a business group, criticised the latest US extension. The chamber's president and chief executive, Perrin Beatty, said the US move “flies in the face of both science and the most recent public health data".

“It's hard to see how allowing fully vaccinated Canadians to enter the US poses a public health threat when travel within the US is unrestricted,” Mr Beatty added.

The US has continued to extend the restrictions on Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis since March 2020.

Airlines and others have urged the administration of US President Joe Biden to lift restrictions covering most non-US citizens who have recently been in Britain, the 26 nations in Europe without border controls as well as Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.

The US land border restrictions do not bar US citizens and lawful permanent residents returning to the US. As in prior extensions, the Department of Homeland Security said it could still seek to amend or rescind the restrictions before August 21.