Loved ones reunited at US-Mexico border as Covid travel restrictions lifted

For the vaccinated people allowed to cross to El Paso after 20 months their travel seemed anything but non-essential'

Oralia Perez waited nervously and excitedly on the US side of the border from Mexico for the chance to hug her sister and mother for the first time in almost 20 months.

One minute after midnight east coast time, ie the first moments of Monday - which was actually still Sunday night, 10.01pm local time, in El Paso, west Texas, where she was - the US government lifted pandemic restrictions on non-essential cross-border travel for those who are vaccinated.