Dr. Fauci says keep the Canada-US border closed

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says keeping the Canada-United States border closed will help contain the spread of COVID-19, Global News reports.

Fauci told reporters that US coronavirus cases are "unacceptably high" and that there is a "concern about letting people in from countries in which there's a high rate of infection" when speaking about Americans coming to Canada.

Johns Hopkins University says there have been more than 6.3 million COVID-19 in the US. Canada sits much farther below at just over 130,825 cases.

Canada has seen less just over 9,000 deaths from COVID-19, most of those in long-term care and nursing homes. There have been nearly 116,000 reported recoveries, and there are 6,015 active cases in Canada.

The US has more than 2.5 million active cases, and has reported more than 190,000 deaths due to COVID-19, 94 percent of those among those vulnerable with comorbidity factors. The US has seen more than 3.5 million recoveries.

Fauci says the threat is increased due to cooler weather coming in the fall. He says that numbers could spike due to indoor gatherings. Fauci also predicts that cases will rise over the Labor Day weekend due to partying.

Fauci's opinion comes after Premier Doug Ford also urged the Federal government to keep the border closed citing possible transmissions from the United States.

A temporary border closer for non-essential travel was agreed upon by Canada and the US in March. The closure has been extended a number of times since then.