Mexico City – The Governments of Mexico and the United States agreed on Friday to extend the restrictions on non-essential traffic on their common border for another 30 days, due to the continued spread of COVID-19 in both countries.
The United States has experienced a recent surge in COVID-19 cases and, with more than 5.5 million infections to date, it has been hit harder than any other country in the world.
Mexico is the seventh country with the most confirmed cases and the third with the most coronavirus-related deaths to date, surpassing half a million cases and 56,000 deaths over the weekend.
After reviewing the development of the spread of COVID-19 in both countries, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said, “The border couldn’t be opened right now… it wouldn’t be logical that we change it right now.”
“The restrictions will remain under the same terms in which they have been developed since their implementation on March 21. Both countries will continue seeking to coordinate sanitary measures in the border region until 23:59 hours on September 21, 2020,” Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) said on Twitter.
The existing partial border closure does not affect trade or essential travel, including health care and workers living and working on opposite sides of the border. “Non-essential travel” includes trips that are considered tourist or recreational in nature. So commercial traffic continues to flow between the two countries, but merchants in border cities who depend on tourism are hurting.
While tourists haven’t been permitted to drive into Mexico for a vacation since March 21, there have been no restrictions on flying into the country, especially since hotels and restaurants in popular resort destinations reopened, albeit with limited capacity, in June.
Thousands of travelers from the U.S. are enjoying uncrowded, low-key vacations in beach destinations such as Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos and Cancún, despite the U.S. government’s issuing of a “do not travel” advisory for all of Mexico on August 6 due in large part to the coronavirus.
The level of screening upon arrival at Mexican airports varies and may include taking travelers’ temperatures and asking them to respond to a health questionnaire. There are no restrictions on U.S. citizens and permanent residents who return to the United States from Mexico, via air or land.
Coronavirus restrictions in Mexico vary by state and mostly follow the federal government’s “stoplight” map, which tracks how each state is doing based on four factors: case number trends (whether new infections are increasing, decreasing or stable), hospital admission trends, hospital occupancy levels and positive testing rates.
Hotel occupancy is capped at 30%, and many hotel guests are Mexican nationals, a shift toward domestic tourism that is also a trend in the United States.
Sources: NBC San Diego • Afar