TORONTO -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that the ban on nonessential travel with the United States will not be lifted until covid-19 is significantly more under control as a surge in cases around the world has prompted other world leaders to tighten travel restrictions.
Canada and the U.S. have limited border crossings since March, extending the restrictions each month.
"Until the virus is significantly under more control everywhere around the world, we are not going to be releasing the restrictions at the border," Trudeau told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
"We are incredibly lucky that trade in essential goods, in agriculture products, in pharmaceuticals is flowing back and forth as it always had," he said. "It's just people not travelling, which I think is the important thing."
Trudeau said although President-elect Joe Biden has an "obvious" different approach to the pandemic than President Donald Trump, the situation in the U.S. remains serious, and it will take awhile to change that.
About 400,000 people crossed the world's longest international border each day before the pandemic.
About 75% of Canada's exports go to the U.S., which has more confirmed cases and deaths from covid-19 than any country in the world.
JAPAN-CHINA TRAVEL
In Japan, the government's efforts to ease restrictions for cross-border travelers have stalled as the spread of the coronavirus has once again accelerated at home and abroad. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has expressed his determination to restore international traffic to help the economy recover from the impact of the pandemic, but such efforts are essentially stalled for the time being.
The government restarted business travel between Japan and China on Monday. An Air China flight from Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, arrived arrived at Narita Airport shortly after restrictions were lifted. Among the approximately 160 passengers who entered the airport lobby, some were "fully equipped" with white protective clothing covering their entire body.
At a news conference Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato stressed, "The nation's infection situation requires the utmost caution."
The government has been gradually easing restrictions since July. Starting from allowing medium- to long-term business stays and admitting expatriates stationed in Japan for business, the government in October allowed new arrivals of foreign nationals with permission to stay for medium to long terms.
The government also relaxed restrictions for short-term visitors, a move the business community had been calling for.
China was the fourth nation for which Japan eased restrictions on both short visits as well as medium- to long-term stays, following Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam. Manufacturers with factories in China and Japanese trading companies had been calling for relaxation, saying they could not maintain their operations if business travelers could not go back and forth.
However, partly from caution about infections with the coronavirus, the volume of business travel remains low. According to the Immigration Services Agency, of the 32,741 foreign nationals who entered Japan from Nov. 1 to Nov. 22, about 70% were students and technical interns, while temporary visitors including short-term business travelers accounted for only about 8%.
HONG KONG RESURGENCE
In Hong Kong, leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday urged residents to stay home as the city grapples with a resurgence of the coronavirus, which has infected more than 600 people in the past week.
Lam asked people to "refrain from social gatherings" and said that people, in particular the elderly, should remain at home.
"The latest wave of the epidemic is rather severe. Every one of us should do our best and exercise a high level of discipline to fight the pandemic," she said at a regular news conference. "The coming two weeks is a crucial period."
The city reported 82 new infections on Tuesday, 23 of which were unlinked to known clusters. Hong Kong has reported 6,397 infections since the pandemic began, with 109 deaths.
Authorities have responded by tightening social-distancing restrictions, including closing entertainment venues such as karaoke bars and game centers and limiting public gatherings to two people. A hotline has been set up to allow the public to report large gatherings on yachts.
The growing number of cases has further delayed a "travel bubble" between Singapore and Hong Kong that was initially slated for November. The bubble would have allowed visitors to travel between the cities without needing to quarantine if they tested negative for the coronavirus.
Statements by the Hong Kong government and Singapore's civil aviation authority on Tuesday said both cities have decided to postpone the bubble beyond December, given the high number of cases in Hong Kong.
Information for this article was contributed by Rob Gillies and Zen Soo of The Associated Press; and by Daiki Misawa and Kazusa Yoda of The Japan News.
