US extends Canada, Mexico travel restrictions for COVID-19

The highly contagious Delta variant is spreading rapidly in the US, with deaths rising to more than 600 per day.

The United States government has extended a one-month ban on nonessential travel along the borders with Canada and Mexico to slow the rising spread of COVID-19 despite increasing political pressure to lift the restriction. US border communities that are dependent on shoppers from Mexico and Canada and their political representatives have urged the Biden administration to lift the ban. The Department of Homeland Security said in a tweet on Friday the restrictions on nonessential travel were still needed to minimise the spread of COVID-19. It extended the ban until at least September 21.