With the agreement that closed the Canada-U.S. border to all but essential travel set to expire May 21, an announcement regarding whether it will stay closed is anticipated soon.
During Tuesday's news conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau suggested discussions with officials in Washington are underway and an announcement is planned for the coming days.
Trudeau was not explicit as to whether he is ready to reopen the border to non-essential traffic but said his focus is on keeping Canadians safe.
"That is the spirit in which we have engaged in constant and constructive dialogue with the Americans on shared interests, including the border," he said. "We are going to be very, very careful about reopening any international travel, including the United States, before we feel that it is time."
Asked what it would take to reopen the border, Trudeau said it will require caution.
"I think we all, right now, are focused on the flattening of the curve -- so that we can restart certain sectors of the economy. That must be done gradually. It must be done with tremendous vigilance. We need to make sure that we have the mechanisms and materials in place to deal with any further spread or spikes in COVID-19."
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has been leading the negotiations in her capacity as the Foreign Affairs Minister.
"We are really daily, even hourly, reviewing and working on and monitoring the border situation with our U.S. partners," she said. "We are acting out of an abundance of caution."
Public health officials in both Canada and the U.S. have said they're flattening the curve of COVID-19 infection, and both are starting to reopen their economies. However, the rate of that re-emergence varies from province to province and state to state. While Canada has taken a slow and steady approach, U.S. leading infectious disease expert Doctor Anthony Fauci testified Tuesday before the Senate Health Committee in Washington that he feared some cities and states might move too fast. According to CBS News, he said that could result in a deadlier second wave of a pandemic that has already claimed the lives of at least 80,700 people in the United States.
As of Tuesday, Canada had just shy of 70,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 4,993 deaths. The U.S. had a caseload of 1.3 million.