The British Ministry of Transport announced on December 22nd Britain and France reached an agreement that night to reopen the British-French border on the morning of the 23rd to allow transport vehicles and some passengers to enter the country.
Under the agreement, rail, air and maritime services will resume operation on the morning of the 23rd, and all people who travel from the United Kingdom to France must present negative results of COVID-19 tests conducted in the past 72 hours.
After a full-day meeting with France on the same day, British Transport Secretary Shapps said that the talks between the British and French government have made good progress, and the two sides agreed that the border between the two countries can be opened to all people who have tested negative for COVID-19 within three days.
This means that these people must have been tested in a qualified institution within the last three days. Shaps said the government has sent enough testing supplies to Kent to deal with drivers waiting on or near the highway.
As part of the agreement, the military and the NHS testing and tracking team will establish multiple testing sites in Kent. All truck drivers are required to undergo a “lateral flow test”, which can produce results within 30 minutes.
The UK’s Transport Ministry said that the agreement with France will be reviewed on December 31, but the agreement may be implemented until January 6 next year.
France announced that the British border would be closed for 48 hours from 24:00 on the 20th after the emergence of the mutant novel coronavirus. Traffic between Dover, England and Calais, France, is controlled, and trucks, cargo ships, etc.
cannot be cleared, which raises concerns about the supply of food and medicine. On the evening of the 22nd, more than 2,800 trucks were still trapped in Kent due to traffic control.
