LONDON (Reuters) – Britain and France may reach an agreement over reopening their border by Tuesday lunchtime, the BBC reported.
The transport of freight across the English Channel has been disrupted after France suspended travel links with Britain to try to curb a new faster spreading strain of the coronavirus.
In order to end disruption at Britain’s ports, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is drawing up contingency plans to test all lorry drivers taking goods across the Channel, according to a Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/12/21/boris-johnson-plans-mass-covid-testing-lorry-drivers-reopen report.
The UK government is preparing infrastructure to allow thousands of truckers to be tested for COVID-19 after France insisted hauliers should be cleared as negative before entering, the Telegraph report said.
On Monday night, the Department for Transport said Operation Stack has been activated on the coast-bound M20 in order to ease congestion towards Dover after hundreds of passenger ferries and lorry freights were lined up.
(Reporting by Andrew MacAskill and Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese and Grant McCool)
