U.S-Canadian border shut for another month

WASHINGTON – The U.S.-Canadian border will remain closed to nonessential traffic through Sept. 21, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf announced Friday.

"We continue to work with our Canadian and Mexican partners to slow the spread of #Covid19," Wolf said on Twitter. "Accordingly, we have agreed to extend the limitation of non-essential travel at our shared land ports of entry through September 21."

The decision means the border with Canada, as well as the border with Mexico, will have been largely closed for a full six months. The two nations agreed in March to close the border for a month, and have extended the closure on a monthly basis ever since.

The latest extension of the border closure comes as no surprise. It comes as several U.S. states battle summertime Covid-19 outbreaks.

Meanwhile, Canada has largely contained the spread of the novel coronavirus. That being the case, the Canadian public has shown little interest in reopening the border anytime soon. An Ipsos-Reid poll released in mid-July indicated that 85% of Canadians surveyed want the border closure to continue through the end of the year.

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