With the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic walloping Canada, the federal government has extended non-essential travel restrictions with the United States until May 21, Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced Tuesday.
“We will continue to base our decisions on the best public health advice available to keep Canadians safe from COVID-19,” Blair tweeted.
The two countries first announced the restrictions in March of last year and–with few additional exemptions–they have been renewed every month since.
The announcement of the new extension comes as U.S. authorities warned Americans on Tuesday not to travel to Canada due to high levels of COVID-19. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Canada due to COVID-19, “indicating a very high level of COVID-19 in the country.”
The Level 4 travel advisory is the State Department’s highest level of warning against travel to a country.
For more than two weeks Canada has been averaging more confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million people than the U.S. As of April 19, Canada had an average of 231.0 cases per million people while the U.S. tracked at 202.78 cases per million.
Ottawa tightened restrictions on travellers crossing the 8,891-kilometre-long border with the U.S. in mid-February.
As of Feb. 22, travellers entering by land have to take a COVID-19 test when they arrive as well as towards the end of their 14-day quarantine. However, unlike travelers who arrive in Canada by air, they may isolate at home instead of staying at a government designated hotel for three days.
Essential workers such as truckers and emergency service providers are exempt from these restrictions.
About $2 billion worth of trade crosses the Canada-U.S. border in both directions every day and before the shutdown, about 300,000 people crossed the border daily in either direction.
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