Border closure extended again, closed until at least May 21

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The U.S./Canada border will remain closed to non-essential travel until at least May 21 after officials on both sides of the border announced its extension. The 13th extension was announced April 20, only a day before the current closure was set to expire.

Both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Canadian’s prime minister of public safety Bill Blair announced the extension in April 20 tweets.

“To deter the spread of Covid-19 and protect our citizens, the United States is continuing restrictions on non-essential travel at our land borders through May 21, while maintaining the flow of essential trade and travel as we have for over a year,” a DHS spokesperson tweeted Tuesday.

In the statement, the DHS spokesperson said the federal government is “engaged in discussions” with Canada and Mexico, also included in the border extension, on easing restriction as health conditions improve. DHS did not provide more details on those conversations in the tweet.

The U.S. has vaccinated more residents than Canada. As of April 20, 25.7 percent of people in the U.S. were fully vaccinated and 40 percent had received at least one vaccine dose. In Canada, just 2.1 percent of the population had received two doses and only 17 percent of people had received one dose, according to the most recent Canadian government data available April 10.

Over 132,321,000 people in the U.S. have received at least one dose while 7,290,869 people in Canada have received at least one dose.

The U.S. has had 31,484,148 confirmed cases of Covid-19, according to CDC data. The increase of Covid-19 cases in the U.S. over the past seven days, 467,242, is 41 percent  of Canada’s 1,131,773 total confirmed cases during the pandemic, according to CDC and Canadian government data.

U.S. and Canada government officials have not announced a border reopening plan or date.

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