The transit truck park in south-east England emptied on Saturday, with thousands of trucks jammed this week after France first banned the crossing after the rapid spread of a new version of the coronavirus in England and later linked the crossover to a negative coronavirus test.

Coronavirus: the second wave, the second closure

Later than expected by many, but in mid-November, the Hungarian government also decided to try to curb the second wave of the coronavirus epidemic by introducing restrictions. At the time of the decision, 5,000 new infections had been identified per day and the number of deaths from the virus was mostly between 50 and 100 in 24 hours. The first step is a partial closure, but how effective it is is questionable. Follow our news!

According to British Transport Minister Grant Shapps, 15,526 truck drivers were tested for coronavirus on Saturday, 36 of which were positive. As a thinly veiled criticism of the French quarantine, Shapps noted in his report that just 0.23 percent of the truckers tested were infected with coronavirus.

The minister also said that truckers to the Dover ferry port no longer have to go to the truck stop at the nearby disused Manston airport, but instead go directly to the port. In a Twitter post, also supplemented with photos, he added that on Saturday the temporary parking lot was emptied, where thousands of trucks have been constantly waiting for tests in recent days. British and Polish soldiers, as well as French firefighters, also participated in the detection of coronavirus in trucks.

The French authorities stopped the traffic of goods from the British side from zero hours on Monday due to the rapid spread of a new version of the coronavirus that appeared in England.

The French ban applied to vehicles used by people (drivers, travel staff, passengers) to cross France. The crossing of freight trains without passengers and passengers – containers and trailers without a tractor – was not restricted by the French authorities, but thousands of trucks remained crowded on the English side during the three days of the border blockade that was lifted Wednesday night.

As a prelude to the French restriction, the UK government announced last week that it had identified a new variant of coronavirus with an infectivity that could be up to 70 percent higher than previously identified coronavirus types. After an agreement between the British and French governments on Wednesday, air, rail and sea transport could resume from Britain to France, but only those who tested negative for a coronavirus of no more than 72 hours could enter France. Truck drivers must perform a rapid coronavirus test in 30 minutes. Drivers will receive the result in an SMS message and, in the event of a negative result, they will be able to cross into France within 72 hours after the inspection date, displaying this message.



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