US to Reopen Canada and Mexico Land Borders for Fully Vaccinated Travellers

The decision ends a travel ban that lasted 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The US has decided to reopen its land borders with Mexico and Canada to fully vaccinated travellers from November, The Associated Press reported.

The decision ends a ban that lasted 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Restrictions on non-essential travellers had been imposed since March 2020 to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.

Use of vehicles, trains, and ferries to travel between the US and Canada, and between the US and Mexico had been limited to only essential purposes like trade.

The Homeland Security Secretary of the US, Alejandro Mayorkas, said that the Biden administration "will begin allowing travellers from Mexico and Canada who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 to enter the United States for non-essential purposes, including to visit friends and family or for tourism, via land and ferry border crossings," Reuters reported.

Unvaccinated people won't be allowed to cross the borders.

Unlike air travel, for the purposes of which a negative COVID-19 test will be required, no negative test will be necessary to enter the US via land.

The only necessity is providing evidence of being inoculated with both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Last month, the Biden government had announced that it will lift the air travel ban on fully vaccinated foreign travellers from November, The Washington Post reported.

(With inputs from Reuters, Associated Press, and The Washington Post.)