France announced a 48-hour ban on travelers and goods from the United Kingdom following the emergence of a new highly infectious variant of the novel coronavirus in the United Kingdom. France and the United Kingdom announced today that they will reopen their borders for traffic tomorrow.
Following the emergence of a highly contagious new variant of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the United Kingdom, most European countries immediately banned travelers and goods from the United Kingdom.
In dramatic scenes today, hundreds of lorries are stranded at the Port of Dover, where Prime Minister Borris Johnson is under overwhelming pressure to resolve the impasse, while the deadline for negotiating a post-Brexit trade deal looms.
British Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced tonight that the UK and France have reached an agreement that “the French border will be reopened for those with compelling reasons, provided they have a negative COVID-19 screening certificate”.
The French Transport Minister also confirmed that land, sea and air transport will resume services from ‘tomorrow morning.
Despite this breakthrough, traffic congestion at the Port of Dover, the UK’s main transport hub, is unlikely to ease any time soon.
The Port of Dover said in a statement tonight that it will reopen to passengers with negative screening certificates, but it is not yet clear when the hundreds of waiting trucks will begin to pass.
The measures to restrict cross-border traffic to Britain have also sparked fears of shortages of fresh produce during the Christmas holiday.
More than 2,800 trucks are still stuck in Kent, southern England (Kent), unable to cross the border into the law, forcing drivers to spend a second night in their vehicles.
As night fell, some 800 truckers pulled up at a nearby abandoned airport and honked their horns for more than half an hour in protest.
Despite the new agreement between Britain and France, it is unclear when traffic will resume. The agreement will be reviewed on the 31st.
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