DOVER, England (AP) – Trucks moved slowly through checkpoints in the English port of Dover and crossed the English Channel on Thursday into the French port of Calais after France partially reopened its borders with Britain. after a scare about a new variant of the coronavirus that spreads quickly.
Only a small fraction of the thousands of frustrated truck drivers and travelers managed to overcome the congestion in Dover on Christmas Eve, interrupted by the slow delivery of the coronavirus tests now required by France. One by one, the trucks passed in the direction of the ferries and trains that connect Britain to France, while authorities checked whether drivers had the necessary negative virus test to cross.
On the French side, the vast port of Calais – which normally takes up to 4,000 trucks a day – has remained quieter than usual.
“Due to logistical problems that prevented freight from reaching the port, unfortunately we were only able to transport 144 trucks out of Dover,” said carrier DFDS. The company is struggling to organize Christmas Day trips to help solve the problem, he added.
Authorities warned that the buildup could take days to resolve. A UK road transport expert estimated there could be 8,000 to 10,000 trucks caught up in the chaos near Dover, but a government minister said it involved about 4,000 trucks.
French ambassador Catherine Colonna said two dozen French firefighters had been sent to Dover, bringing 10,000 coronavirus tests to drivers desperate to return home for Christmas. British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said British and French officials had agreed to keep the border between countries open during Christmas to help truck drivers and travelers get home.
Dozens of countries around the world began barring people from Britain last weekend after Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that large areas of southern England, including London, had to be placed under tougher restrictions on contain a new, more contagious version of the virus.
France’s temporary closure of the border has raised most concerns, as France is an important trade and travel channel between Britain and the continent. The UK relies heavily on trade links across the Channel to the mainland for food at this time of year, especially fresh fruits and vegetables.
The coronavirus variant was announced at a time when Europe was hit by new infections and virus deaths. Europe as a whole has recorded more than 500,000 virus-related deaths, according to a Johns Hopkins University count that experts agree is probably an under-count due to lost cases and other factors.
Britain has seen rising rates of infection in recent weeks, with many hospitals getting close to capacity. On Wednesday, the country recorded an additional 744 deaths and a record 39,237 new confirmed cases. Christmas meetings and festive shopping were canceled for millions at the last minute in an attempt to control the spread of the virus.
London now has the highest rate of people tested positive in the country, according to the latest data published by the Office for National Statistics. He estimated that 2.1% of people in the capital had COVID-19 in mid-December, compared with about 1.18%, or one in 85 people, of the general population in England.
Most of the new positive cases in London are believed to be the coronavirus variant, the statistics office said.
In France, the authorities defended the way the country deals with the border after the EU transport commissioner made unusually strong criticisms.
Commissioner Adina Valean, from Romania, tweeted: “I am sorry that France went against our recommendations and brought us back to the situation we were in in March, when supply chains were interrupted.”
France’s European Affairs Minister, Clement Beaune, tweeted that France “exactly followed the EU’s recommendation” and is now “more open than other European countries” to Britain’s arrivals.
China on Thursday became the last nation to suspend flights to and from the UK
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Angela Charlton contributed from Paris.
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