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International Travel Impacted Through Summer Months

Flyers dreaming of international destinations may not be able to fly abroad through this summer. The U.S.-Canada border will remain closed through the end of July, while travel bans on the United Kingdom could extend through the end of summer.

International travel may suffer throughout the summer, as doctors and politicians continue to close borders to prevent the spread of the novel Coronavirus. While Canada is closing borders through the end of July, America may keep borders closed from Great Britain even longer.

Canada Border Remains Closed Through July 21, 2020

In a joint decision, authorities from both the United States and Canada decided to keep the border closed for all non-essential or “discretionary” travel through July 21, 2020. As reported by Canada’s CTV News, commerce and healthcare workers will be allowed to cross the border, but tourists and those not on official business will be refused entry.

“When it comes to the Canada-U.S. border, as the prime minister announced today, we have agreed with our American neighbors to roll over for another 30 days, the measures that we have currently in place,” said deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, noting that the closure applies to “all of Canada’s borders.”

This latest closure marks the third extension of Canada’s closed borders with the United States, as Canada works to contain the outbreak. The latest data suggests Canada only has around 99,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 8,000 deaths. The latest numbers in the U.S. shows over 2.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, with over 110,000 deaths.

British Travel to the United States: “More Likely Months than Weeks”

In addition to the continued closure of America’s land borders, international travel to the U.S. may continue to be stifled due to border closures. In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Dr. Anthony Fauci said lifting the restrictions could take place in “more likely months than weeks.”

In March 2020, a presidential proclamation closed borders to foreign nationals traveling into the U.S. from 28 European countries, China and Iran. With America continuing to struggle against containing the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Fauci notes that the U.S. may not have the capacity to properly track and trace international travelers who may be carrying the novel Coronavirus.

“The question is will they have the capability to do the appropriate and effective isolation, and contact tracing, to prevent this increase from becoming a full blown outbreak?” Dr. Fauci told The Telegraph. “I’m concerned it’s happening. I hope the individual states can blunt that…I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so. But I don’t think it’s this winter or fall, we’ll be seeing it for a bit more.”

Travel from the U.S. to the United Kingdom is also complicating. Starting June 8, the British government instituted a policy where all new arrivals to the nation must self-isolate for 14 days. Those who do not provide contact details or refuse to self-isolate could face around $1,250 in fines and refusal of entry into the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland or Scotland.

11 Comments
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santarosaflyer June 26, 2020

There are a number of reported cases of ‘healthy’ people dying from this virus. We are still leaving which underlying cause are more likely to die from this virus. Some people are not even aware that they have underlying conditions such as diabetes.

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brenc3 June 19, 2020

Americans are in for a rude awakening as other countries start cautiously reopening their borders to other countries deemed "low risk" and that list often doesn't include the US. Americans won't be free to travel until we can show that we've handled the outbreak at least as well as most other countries. But we have neither a plan nor, increasingly, the will to do that.

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OZFLYER86 June 19, 2020

seems many are talking about cases of corona, but the real issue is deaths. Don't think 1 healthy person has died from corona (could be wrong). By healthy mean those with normal immune systems. Elderly don't have normal immune systems, either do cancer patients etc. but none of them will be travelling anywhere, anytime soon.

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Dougg June 18, 2020

I will not be flying Anywhere this summer.

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john11111111111 June 18, 2020

I would like to go to the US or California or Texas.