Passengers are seen at Penn Station in New York, the United States, on Aug. 6, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

US visitors are probably among the least welcomed groups in the world as the country's domestic COVID-19 pandemic situation remains serious. People of some countries and regions, particularly neighboring Canada and Mexico, are reportedly avoiding US citizens who cross the border due to concern about the virus.

Canada announced it would extend its ban on US visitors for at least another month until September 21, in response to the US' ever-increasing confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths. The extended ban is set to "keep our communities safe," Canadian Public Safety Minister Bill Blair wrote on Twitter on August 14. 

It is the fifth time the Canada-US border closure has been extended amid the pandemic. Some Canadian residents reached by the Global Times said they support the ban, partly because a few US visitors have behaved badly in Canada in recent days. 

Seven US visitors, for instance, were fined by Canadian police in June for stopping in Banff National Park to see the sights regardless of the rules observed by the Canada Border Services Agency, which only allows people from the US to drive straight through Canada to Alaska for work or to return home, CBC reported on June 21.

Matthew, a resident living in Western Canada's Saskatchewan, said US visitors who improperly visit Canada are ignorant and irresponsible. "I worry about them bringing the virus here," he told the Global Times on Monday local time.

Matthew is among the overwhelming majority of Canada residents who support the extension of the border ban. As many as 85 percent of Canadians wanted the Canada-US border to stay closed to all non-essential travel until at least the end of the year, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos in July.

Canadians' antipathy toward US visitors amid the pandemic has led to occasional cases of cars with US license plates in Canada being vandalized, Canadian media reports said. 

Similar to Canada, authorities in Mexico stated last week the border closure with the US for non-essential travel would last for another month, until September 21. 

It "does not make sense" to reopen the border at this time, said Mexico Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, according to an Associated Press report on August 13.

The US has very weak controls for the pandemic, Mexican citizen Maria (pseudonym). told the Global Times on Tuesday. "The US people who walk across the border can be transmitters of the virus," Maria said.

She echoed Javier García Cabeza de Vaca, governor of Mexico's border state Tamaulipas, who said in July that cross-border travel would bring problems as the pandemic situation in neighboring US state Texas was "very bad," the Washington Post reported on July 4.

US visitors are paying for their government's terrible response and their own improper behavior in the fight against the virus, experts said.

The Trump administration's failure in dealing with the pandemic has resulted in the spread of the virus, making the US the hardest-hit country in the world, said Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at the China Foreign Affairs University.

The US government lifted its months of advisory warnings for US citizens against traveling abroad on August 6 local time, when the country's total confirmed cases reached 4.87 million, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University. On Twitter, global users mocked the move as being useless because few countries and regions will let US people in.

"Instead of blaming Chinese for the pandemic, the US and its people should think about why other people don't want them to visit," Li told the Global Times.

Hongmei, a Chinese engineer working in Toronto, said he dislikes and keeps himself away from US people who don't wear masks or practice social distancing amid the pandemic.

"It's necessary for US people to learn from Chinese and enhance awareness to prevent the spread of the virus," he told the Global Times on Monday, adding that he supports extending the Canada-US ban till the number of daily new cases in the US is "fewer than 500."

The US reported 41,893 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday local time, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.