'Relief and reunions': US welcomes first travellers as COVID curbs lifted after 20 months

As the United States fully removed the COVID-19 curbs and reopened its borders with Mexico Canada, and all of Europe on Monday, November 8, travellers rushed into the country in long queues of cars for emotional reunions ahead of the Christmas festivities after nearly two years. The US welcomed the vaccinated international tourists as families and friends gathered outpouring sentiments as they reunited with loved ones for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic hit the world in early 2020. “Long-separated couples kissed, and grandparents embraced grandchildren who had doubled in age,” Associated Press reported early on Monday as the COVID-related travel restrictions were suspended for the first time. 

‘Reunion’ between neighbour countries

A traveller named Octavio Alvarez and his 14-year-old daughter were seen rushing in excitement to enter United States San Diego to reunite with the mother-in-law. “It’s a big feeling,” Alvarez, 43, a resident of Ensenada, Mexico, told AP. The US border restrictions in view of the pandemic had kept the families separated for over a couple of years, and the emotions were too high. On Monday, however, as borders reopened the rush and excitement engulfed the country with spouses hugging each other, families celebrating and grandparents meeting with their grandchildren for the first time after several months clampdown, according to US press reports.

Cars wait to cross into the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Monday in Tijuana, Mexico. The US fully reopened its borders with Mexico and Canada and lifted restrictions on travel that covered most of Europe. Image: AP Photo/Gregory Bull

Performers entertain passengers at London Heathrow Airport's T3 as the US reopens its borders to UK visitors in a significant boost to the travel sector, in London, Monday. Image: AP 

A French woman Gaye Camara was seen brimming with joy at the thought of reuniting with her husband, a resident of New York. She had last seen him in January 2020 when the pandemic raged across the globe in full momentum causing a massive death toll. “It would be 21 months before they could hold each other again,” the Associated Press reports from on the ground. 

“I’m going to jump into his arms, kiss him, touch him,” the French woman travelling to US told reporters as she rushed her luggage trolly at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport. 

United States border with neighbouring Mexico and Canada has long been a way of life for the people of these countries. With borders sealed for nearly 2 years, the businesses had longed for the Canadians, European and Mexicans to return. At a celebratory news conference at the San Ysidro, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria surrounded by Mexican officials called the clampdown devastating as it had snapped the family ties. Tijuana Mayor Montserrat Caballero, meanwhile excitedly called it a “reunion between neighbour countries.”

People applaud and take pictures as MaKensi Kastl greets her boyfriend, Thierry Coudassot, after he arrived from France at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, NJ. Image: AP 

Image: AP