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The land border between the United States and Mexico will not open for non-essential traffic until at least October 21st.
Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the announcement on Thursday amid concerns about the growing number of cases of COVID-19 in the U.S.
“After reviewing the development of the spread of Covid-19, Mexico proposed to the United States the extension, for another month, of the restrictions on nonessential land transit on their common border,” the Foreign Ministry reported on its Twitter account.
Tras revisar el desarrollo de la propagación de #COVID19, 🇲🇽 planteó a 🇺🇸 la extensión, por un mes más, de las restricciones al tránsito terrestre no esencial en su frontera común.
— Relaciones Exteriores (@SRE_mx) September 17, 2020
“The restrictions will remain in the same terms as they have been developed since their implementation, on March 21.”
“Both countries will coordinate health measures in the border region that will be in effect until 11:59 p.m. October 21, 2020,” the Mexico Foreign Ministry announced on their Twitter account.
Mexico and the United States agreed to close their shared land border to non-essential traffic back in March for 30 days and have since extended the closure six times.
Travel for tourism or recreational purposes in either direction across the border is not allowed and entry could be denied.
Travel from Mexico to the United States using Tijuana’s Cross Border Xpress (CBX) is not open to non-essential travel.
Non U.S citizens must demonstrate an essential reason for travel. Passengers who purpose for travel is considered essential may cross through CBX with official documentation.
However, there are no restrictions for CBX passengers headed south into Mexico, but travelers will have to fill out a questionnaire that is reviewed by Mexican border officials.
The CBX is a 400-foot pedestrian bridge for passengers that links the Tijuana International Airport with a terminal in San Diego.
The ban on non-essential traffic across the land border does not affect air travel. American and Mexican passengers arriving in either country by plane is permitted.
On September 8th, the U.S. State Department reduced its level 4 ‘do not travel' warning for Mexico to a level 3 ‘reconsider travel'. However, there are 5 Mexican states that have the ‘do not travel' warning still in place due to crime.
The states with the level 4 warning are:
- Colima state due to crime.
- Guerrero state due to crime.
- Michoacán state due to crime.
- Sinaloa state due to crime.
- Tamaulipas state due to crime and kidnapping.
U.S. border states have a combined 1.71 millions confirmed cases of COVID-19 while Mexico border states have confirmed 137,548 cases according to official sources.
However, the United States has reported much higher testing rates which could result in a higher number of confirmed cases.
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