Thousands of trucks mass at Dover in cross-Channel chaos
LONDON: France and Britain reopened cross-Channel travel yesterday after a 48-hour ban to curb the spread of a new coronavirus variant but London has warned it could take days for thousands of trucks blocked around the port of Dover to get moving.
RAMSGATE: An aerial view shows lines of freight lorries and heavy goods vehicles parked on the tarmac at Manston Airport near Ramsgate, south east England on Tuesday.-AFP
The major transit hub reopened following an agreement between London and Paris to allow hauliers stranded in the UK to leave the country if they could produce a negative coronavirus test that was less than 72 hours old.
“It will take a few days to work our way through,” Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky News. “There’s going to be quite a lot of work to do.” Much of Europe had swiftly banned British travellers following the emergence of a more transmissible variant of COVID-19 in Britain, and France’s decision to block freight movements sparked fears of food shortages.
Jenrick said testing would be carried out at Manston and “multiple other locations.” If a driver tests positive following a rapid screening that normally produces results in 30 minutes, the driver will be given a more accurate swab test. In the event of two positive results the drivers will be placed in isolation in a hotel for 10 days.
French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebarri confirmed that air travel, boats and Eurostar trains would resume service as of yesterday, saying “French nationals, people living in France and those with a legitimate reason will have to be carrying a negative test.” But his British counterpart Grant Shapps urged lorry drivers not to head to Kent expecting to board a ferry or train, even though Dover said it would reopen from midnight local time (2300 GMT) for travellers with a negative Covid result. A handful of passenger vehicles disembarked from two ferries in Calais early yesterday, an AFP correspondent said, but port management said traffic was not expected to pick up until later.
