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Mexico and the United States will maintain the closure of their common border for non-essential travel until May 21, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) on Monday.
“Mexico’s restrictions on non-essential land crossings from the United States will remain in place until 11:59 p.m. on May 21, 2021,” the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a message on Twitter.
It specified that the measure will continue in those states in the north of Mexico that are in orange (high risk) and red (maximum risk), according to the Mexican government’s epidemiological traffic light.
In addition, it pointed out that Mexico and the United States “are in talks to relax restrictions on border crossings based on the rates of spread of covid-19 on both sides of the border.”
The SRE also noted that restrictions “on non-essential land crossings across Mexico’s southern border” will continue until 11:59 p.m. on May 21, 2021.
On March 21, 2020, Mexico and the United States closed their borders for non-essential travel, i.e., those for recreational or tourist purposes.
In addition, they halted open immigration processes in the United States, leaving thousands of migrants stranded at the northern Mexican border, which were resumed in mid-February, following President Joe Biden’s order.
The restrictions in place have not prevented the commercial transit of food, fuel, health care equipment and medicines across the border between the two countries.
Mexico’s border with the United States, which stretches more than 3,000 kilometers, is also one of the busiest in the world, with more than one million people crossing every day and goods and services worth 1.7 billion dollars a day being exchanged.
As of Monday, according to figures from the Ministry of Health, Mexico has registered 212,466 deaths due to Covid-19 and 2,306,910 SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infections.
With this data, Mexico is the third country in the world with the most deaths, behind the United States and Brazil, and the fourteenth in number of infections, according to Johns Hopkins University.
However, the real figures would be higher, as the Government itself admitted at the end of March that the country has recorded an excess mortality of almost 300,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic.
In addition, the vaccination process has been completed with 14.3 million doses applied since December 24.
