US-Canada border to remain closed for another month

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Because of the number of COVID-19 cases in the US, American and Canadian officials have agreed to keep the border between the two nations closed to all except commercial and essential traffic for another month. Two recent surveys have shown that a large majority of Canadians support the continued closure of the border, VOA News reported Tuesday.

The 8,893-kilometer-long US-Canada border was first closed on March 20. The closure means only people such as medical professionals can cross. All non-essential travel, such as tourism is prohibited, VOA News said. Commercial traffic is allowed. Prior to the pandemic, around $2bn worth of all types of trade passed this undefended boundary. The border saw some $718.5 billion worth of trade in 2018.

Two surveys taken this month found that over 80% of respondents are in favor of keeping the border closed as it now is, VOA News reported. According to one of the polls, conducted by Nanos Research, only 3% of respondents were in favor of opening the border at this time.

Commenting on the poll results: Nanos Research chief data scientist Nik Nanos told VOA News: “It kind of suggests that people who want to open the border immediately are less than a fringe of the population, basically less than one out of every 20. And we don’t usually see this type of consensus in the polling data where, you know, upwards of eight out of every 10 agree to such, what I would consider a drastic action, which is to close the border to nonessential visitors. So, it’s very unusual, but it speaks to the time and the threat that Canadians feel.”

Differences in coronavirus infection rates at the border between the two countries may be partly responsible for Canadian reticence about opening back up to the US: on July 16 Washington State had 1,267 new coronavirus cases while British Columbia in Canada had 21.

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