Transport: there is still a lot of traffic on the side of cross-Channel traffic
Queues of vehicles awaiting embarkation in the port of Dover, on the British side, to reach France, December 24, 2020. Thousands of trucks in particular remained stranded across the Channel.
REUTERS - SIMON DAWSON
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Cross-Channel traffic is still slowing down between the ports of Dover, in England and Calais in France.
In question: the closure of the border by France after the discovery of a new strain of covid-19.
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France had for two days this week closed its borders with the United Kingdom when a new strain of the virus, announced to be more contagious by the British authorities, was discovered across the Channel.
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: New strain of Covid-19: several European countries suspend their links with the United Kingdom
They have reopened since Wednesday for people tested negative for Covid.
To relieve congestion in this border area, the ferries will run this Friday, Christmas Day.
Only two boats with 100 trucks on board arrived across the Channel on Thursday.
To allow truck drivers stranded in Dover to return to Calais and then their destination in Europe, the port of Calais is therefore open at Christmas, while it is traditionally closed on public holidays.
This was confirmed by Jean-Marc Puissesseau, president of the port of Calais.
Line screening tests
But the flow of traffic will depend on the speed with which the screening tests can be carried out in Great Britain because only people who have a negative Covid test of less than 72 hours will be able to embark, knowing that around 6,000 truck drivers are stuck in place.
Some 25 French firefighters are mobilized in Dover to carry out antigenic tests (with 10,000 PCR or antigenic tests) to help detect the thousands of French and European truck drivers stranded.
Listen to the explanations of Colonel Hugues Deregnaucourt, vice-president of the National Federation of firefighters, interviewed by
Ariane Gaffuri
of the economy department.
we are on flows of 10,000 people in two days, it can go very quickly
Colonel Hugues Deregnaucourt, vice-president of the National Federation of firefighters: "we have two types of tests ..."
On the UK side, 300 tests can be performed in an hour.
On the Channel Tunnel side, Eurotunnel has reinforced these teams to work on Christmas Day and Saturday.
One hundred voluntary medical interns are also on duty.
Objective to pass a total of 5,000 trucks by the end of the week.
On the side of the drivers, deprived of Christmas party, the exasperation was noticeable Thursday.
Thousands of trucks were stranded near the tunnel and the port of Dover, in precarious material conditions and to express their discontent, they honked for half an hour.
Among them, many drivers from Eastern Europe.
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