OTTAWA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- The Canada-U.S. border agreement restricting non-essential travel has been extended another month to May 21 amid the COVID-19 third wave, Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said on Tuesday.
"Non-essential travel restrictions with the United States have been extended until May 21st, 2021. We will continue to base our decisions on the best public health advice available to keep Canadians safe from COVID-19," Blair said in a tweet.
The agreement, which was reached in March 2020, has been renewed every month after that. Essential workers such as truckers and emergency service providers are exempt from the restrictions.
The new extension came as the United States government on Tuesday warned its people not to travel to Canada due to high levels of COVID-19. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a Level 4 Travel Health Notice for Canada due to COVID-19. The Level 4 travel advisory is U.S. highest level of warning against travel to a country.
As of Tuesday noon, Canada reported a cumulative total of 1,136,395 cases of COVID-19, including 23,706 deaths, according to CTV.
Canada's national-level data showed a seven-day average of 8,680 new cases daily from April 13 to 19, a seven percent increase compared to the previous seven days, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada on Tuesday.
For more than two weeks Canada has been averaging more confirmed cases of COVID-19 per million people than the United States. As of April 19, Canada had an average of 231 cases per million people while the United States tracked 202.78 cases per million.
Canada tightened restrictions on travelers crossing the 8,891-km-long border with the United States in February 2021.
Some two billion Canadian dollars worth of trade crossed the Canada-U.S. border every day, and before the shutdown about 300,000 people crossed the border daily. Enditem
