COVID-19: Mexico urges citizens to suspend all non-essential travel with immediate effect

The government of Mexico has urged its citizens to suspend all nonessential travel with immediate effect due to the coronavirus pandemic. It issued orders not to travel “especially between Mexico and the United States” to mitigate the transmission of the COVID-19 disease. The reiteration comes as the global cases jump to over 950,705, the US accounted for 215,357 infections, while Mexico has detected 1,378 cases, and recorded 37 fatalities so far. 

According to the statement released on Mexico’s Foreign Ministry’s official website, “the steps taken to contain the virus and the continued reduction in the number of flights and air routes have created a great number of logistical complications,” however, “Mexicans living abroad permanently, especially in the United States, are asked to follow the instructions of their local authorities,” the statement read. The government recommended its citizens to “stay home and avoid all international travel” and said that the “Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to provide all possible consular assistance and protection within the current limitations on travel and access.” 

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Co-ordinated plan to restrict travel

According to an agency report, the State Department in the US announced that the US border with Mexico would be sealed to all non-essential, including recreational travel. Similar measures were to be enforced along the northern border with Canada due to the COVID-19 pandemic. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Mexico's Foreign Secretary Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubon co-ordinated a plan to restrict travel across the shared borders in response to the global health emergency, State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus was quoted as saying. 

The government also insisted the Mexicans who are permanent residents in the US “temporarily stop nonessential travel to our country,” in the statement, advising the returning citizens wanting to reunite with the family to remain where they are. US secretary of the state, Mike Pompeo, tweeted that US has been working in collaboration with Mexico’s Marcelo Ebrard  "on travel restrictions that balance protecting our citizens from the further transmission of COVID-19". 

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(With agency inputs)