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The man is isolating himself, the French Health Ministry confirmed late Friday, adding that he was asymptomatic.
On Monday it was announced that French and EU citizens were allowed to enter France from the UK once again after a 48-hour shutdown for fear of Covid.
Thousands of truckers have been stranded in England after France and other countries closed their borders to the UK out of fear of a highly infectious new variant of the coronavirus. After two days of talks, Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps announced Tuesday that an agreement had been reached with Paris, although he did not elaborate on arrangements for the truck movement.
More than 4,500 heavy vehicles crossed the English Channel, Shapps said on Christmas Day.
Drivers can only cross into France if they have a negative coronavirus test, slowing down the process of clearing the delay caused when borders were closed in response to the variant of the coronavirus first detected in southern England.
Mr. Shapps thanked the carriers for their patience and “everyone on the ground worked tirelessly to help after the French border was suddenly closed.”
“More than 10,000 tests have been conducted and more than 4,500 trucks are back on the Canal,” he said on Twitter.
Ireland also confirmed cases of the new variant, whose presence in the United Kingdom has brought travel bans from several countries.
“I can confirm that we have detected the new UK variant of SARS-CoV-2 through whole genome sequencing at the National Virus Reference Laboratory” at University College Dublin, Medical Director Tony Holohan said in a statement.
“More tests in the coming days and weeks will establish to what extent it is present here,” he added.
Five new cases of the UK variant have also been detected in Japan.
The highly infectious variant, officially known as B.1.1.7, has already been linked to cases in several countries around the world, including Denmark, Singapore, Australia, Italy, and Iceland.
Earlier this week, Professor Neil Ferguson, a member of Nervtag, a subgroup of SAGE, said the variant was “everywhere now” but that he expected the Level 4 restrictions to have a beneficial impact.
Appearing via video link, he told MPs at the Science and Technology Committee: “The fact that [Denmark] I have detected 10 cases with sequencing of this new variant in a country as small as Denmark with a relatively low infection rate would almost certainly suggest, in my opinion, that this virus has been introduced in a vast majority, if not all countries Europeans at the current time. “
