The British Guardian reported on the 24th that after the discovery of the mutant virus in the United Kingdom, it caused chaos in Western Europe as a whole.
Due to the once closed British-French border and thousands of freight trucks were stranded in Dover Harbor, England and other places.
Drivers were “gravely desperate and angry” and even clashed with the police on the 23rd. Despite the agreement between the British and French governments to reopen the border, immigrants are still required to be tested for the novel coronavirus.
On Christmas Eve on the 24th, some vehicles slowly passed the checkpoint, but the way home was still “distant” and the freight chaos still took at least a few days to ease.
CNN said on the 24th that the severity of the British epidemic and the travel restrictions imposed by European countries against the United Kingdom have made the relationship between Britain more tense.
Some people believe that the current chaos is not caused by the epidemic, but from the political contradiction caused by Brexit. Reuters reported that on the 23rd local time, thousands of truck drivers were trapped on the highway at border ports such as Dover, forming a long line.
The British Road Transport Association estimates that at least 10,000 cargo trucks have been stranded in the UK due to the closure of the border.
On the same day, many drivers realized that they had no hope to go home to spend Christmas with their families, which made them more desperate and angry.
On the 23rd, some drivers stranded in Dover pushed with police officers while undergoing nucleic acid tests and had physical conflict. British police said that a few people tried to forcibly cross the Anglo-French tunnel, and at least one person had been arrested.
According to the Guardian, in an emergency, the British and French governments reached an agreement on the 22nd to reopen the British-French border from the 23rd, but only truck drivers and some eligible passengers are allowed to enter France.
The resumption of rail, air and sea traffic will take time, and all entry into France will need to produce 72 small At that time, the nucleic acid test is negative, and the truck driver must also be additionally tested to prevent the spread of the mutant virus.
Under the agreement, drivers will be screened quickly and, if the results are positive, they will be tested for more comprehensive and time-consuming nucleic acid.
CNN said that nucleic acid testing is a necessary condition for British personnel and vehicles to enter France, but on the seriously blocked border road, there is a lack of suitable testing places and conditions, and it is very difficult to clear customs quickly.
On the morning of the 23rd, only two trucks passed through the Anglo-French tunnel and arrived at Port Calais, France. The BBC said that in order to solve the problem of border congestion, the British army and NHS medical personnel have been mobilized to carry out nucleic acid testing for truck drivers stranded in the UK.
Robert Janrick, the UK Secretary of State for Housing, Community and Local Government, said that the screening will be mainly carried out by the military, hoping to solve the truck congestion situation as soon as possible.
Grant Sharps, the British Transport Secretary, tweeted that large-scale testing has been launched with strong support from the military, but warned that rapid implementation of testing has become a “a difficult task” due to the large number of stranded people and limited testing force, “it takes considerable time and patience”.
Government officials predict that it will take at least a week for all the drivers currently stranded to return to the continent, and the UK will continue to face problems of poor freight routes and shortages in the future.
The Daily Telegraph said on the 24th that drivers who were unable to return home were increasingly resentful of the British government and blamed their plight on “political reasons”.
With the “Brexit” transition period that will expire on the 31st of this month, many drivers expect that the procedures to go to the UK next year will become difficult, so they rushed to the UK to deliver goods at the end of the year. As a result, the unexpected intensification of the epidemic trapped them in the UK.
Some people say that the current predicament is not caused by the epidemic, but the result of “political conspiracy”. They believe that the political contradictions caused by Brexit have made the EU more severe towards Britain and “do not rule out the possibility of deliberately creating problems”.
Some commentators said that the chaos caused by the British-French border blockade and the travel restrictions imposed by various countries against the United Kingdom will further aggravate the contradictions between Britain and the countries concerned.
Logistics organizations have warned that more drivers from European countries will refuse to deliver goods to the UK next year due to epidemic control and “Brexit”, which will further exacerbate concerns about food, medicine and daily necessities shortages in the UK.
According to official data, on the 23rd local time, more than 39,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were added in the United Kingdom, the highest number of new cases in a single day since the beginning of the epidemic, with a total of more than 2.15 million confirmed cases.
On the same day, Hancock, British Health Secretary of Health, announced that from midnight on the 26th, the epidemic prevention and control level in eastern, southeast and southwest England, such as Sussex and Oxfordshire, would be raised to the highest level four.
The BBC said that the emergence of a new mutant virus has put Britain’s epidemic control to a greater test, and criticism of the British government’s control measures has reached a new high.
