U.S. authorities Thursday announced that land borders with Canada and Mexico will remain closed to non-essential travel at least until December 21 due to a sharp increase in novel coronavirus cases.
RELATED:
PAHO: Initial Vaccination in Latam Estimated at $2 Billion
Border closure measures were first imposed in March in a move to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and have been extended monthly since then.
Meanwhile, Canada's government has noted that travel restrictions on the Canada-U.S. land border would remain in place for at least another month.
"After reviewing the development of the spread of COVID-19 in both countries (...) Mexico proposed to the U.S. the extension for one more month of the restrictions to non-essential land transit on their common border," Mexico's Foreign Ministry twitted.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on Wednesday noted that the region has reported almost 1.5 million cases and 19,000 related deaths in the last week, adding that coronavirus cases continue to grow at a "dizzying" rate in the continent, especially in Mexico's capital and the U.S which is the hardest-hit COVID-19 country in the world.
Mexico reached 99,528 deaths due to the Novel coronavirus, while confirmed cases amount to over 1 million.
Meanwhile, Canada recorded 4,640 new cases in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number to over 314,000 since the outbreak of the epidemic in the country.
COVID-19 total figures in the U.S record 11,903,133 confirmed cases and over 29,270 related fatalities as of Thursday.