The US has renewed its limits on nonessential travel from Canada and Mexico for another month [David Ryder/Reuters]

Washington, August 22 (RHC)-- The United States government has extended a one-month ban on nonessential travel along the borders with Canada and Mexico to slow the rising spread of COVID-19 despite increasing political pressure to lift the restriction.

U.S. border communities that are dependent on shoppers from Mexico and Canada and their political representatives have urged the Biden administration to lift the ban.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a tweet on Friday the restrictions on nonessential travel were still needed to minimise the spread of COVID-19.  It extended the ban until at least September 21.

The highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus is spreading rapidly worldwide and in the US where the seven-day average of new cases has risen to 133,000 a day, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Hospitalizations in the U.S. are averaging more than 11,000 per day and daily deaths from COVID-19 have risen to 641, according to the CDC.   Announcing the renewed travel restrictions, DHS officials said the agency is working with public health and medical experts to determine how to “safely and sustainably resume normal travel.”

American tourists who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus are being allowed to enter Canada after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government earlier this month lifted restrictions.

The U.S. travel restrictions have been in place since early in the pandemic in March 2020 and repeatedly extended while allowing commercial traffic and essential crossings to continue.