The US has said it will reopen its land borders with Mexico and Canada to fully vaccinated travellers from November.
It means those sealed out of the US because of the pandemic can enter – for any reason – using land and ferry crossing points.
Unvaccinated travellers will still be banned from entering the US from Mexico and Canada by land. However, Air travel is allowed with a negative Covid test.
The US has curbed travel from Mexico and Canada since March 2020. Currently, most non-US citizens who have been to the UK, China, India, South Africa, Iran, Brazil and a number of European countries within the past 14 days are not allowed into the US.
Essential travellers, including students, truck drivers, US citizens and healthcare workers were never banned from crossing land borders. However from January 2022, they will also need to show proof of vaccination to get into the US from Mexico or Canada.
News of the reopening has drawn praise from US lawmakers with constituencies along the Canadian border.
The announcement of new rules in September was a surprise to many – coming days after the US government said it was not the right time to lift restrictions. The US has recorded some 44.5 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and more than 716,000 deaths.
