MEXICO CITY – The governments of Mexico and the United States agreed to reopen their common border in November, following vaccination progress against COVID-19, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced on Wednesday.

“The northern border will be opened. We will have normalcy on our northern border as of Nov. 1,” Lopez Obrador said during his daily press conference from the National Palace in Mexico City.

The Mexico-U.S. border has been closed to “non-essential” traffic since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The closure imposed restrictions on travel for tourism or shopping, but did not affect trade or other essential crossings, such as transit for goods and for work or health reasons.