The closure of the United States-Canada land border has been extended for a 10th month.

The border will now remain closed to non-essential travel until at least Jan. 21, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf announced Friday.

“We are working closely with Mexico & Canada to keep essential trade & travel open while also protecting our citizens from the virus,” Wolf wrote on social media Friday.

This country’s northern border has been closed to nonessential travel since March. The U.S. is, by far, outpacing its neighbors with its number of COVID-19 cases. As of Friday, the U.S. had seen a total of 15.7 million cases of COVID-19 while Canada had seen 446,000 cases and Mexico 1.2 million.

North Country Chamber of Commerce President Garry Douglas, of Plattsburgh, said the announcement of the border closure extension was expected and highlights the need for Congress to pass a COVID-19 relief bill.

“The reality at this stage is that there is unfortunately little reason to expect any significant relaxation of the current restrictions before spring sometime, although we continue to encourage consideration of some modest adjustments before then centered on such circumstances as family and near border property access,” he said.