The United States extends their land border closure to Canada and Mexico until August 21.

The Medical Officer of Health for the Thunder Bay District Dr. Janet DeMille says this is somewhat surprising to her after the recent announcement that fully-vaccinated U.S. travelers will be welcomed into Canada, as long as they can provide a negative test.

“I don’t know all the details of the announcement, but I certainly would have thought for example that fully-vaccinated Canadians would be safe to go into the United States, and I’m not sure why there wasn’t some kind of reciprocal agreement.”

Dr. Demille goes on to mention she understands exercising caution when it comes to borders as so many other countries are seeing increasing COVID-19 cases, but believes we are doing well here in Canada.

“I do know there’s other countries in the world where the numbers are going up, and the vaccination rate is not as high as we’d like to see, so I can understand some concern around borders these days,” explains DeMille, “But, you know we have some great numbers in Canada overall and a great vaccination rate.”

She concludes by saying while we have no active cases in Thunder Bay, it is still important for people in the city to get their vaccine doses.

“You know it’s summer time, but we might expect as we approach the fall more cases, so we do intend to make sure that we have access to vaccines for anyone that needs it over the next couple months.”

While the land border restriction for Canadians wishing to enter the United States will be in effect for at least another month, you are still able to fly or take a train there. You will still be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test three days before arriving.